Biliana Cicin-Sain and Robert W. Knecht are co-directors of the Center for the Study of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware and co-authors of The Future of U.S. Ocean Policy (Island Press, 1998).

Ultimately, this book provides a means to help address and solve the complexity that exists between coastal systems and anthropogenic activities.

Coastal areas around the world are severely stressed due to a myriad of human activities and marine pollution. They are now detrimentally being affected by climate change and sea level rise as well. One major theater most acutely impacted by these phenomena is coastal South Asia, an overcrowded region with low adaptive capacities. Drawing on the experiences of coastal countries and regions beyond South Asia, Towards Sustainable Coastal Development: Institutionalizing Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Coastal Climate Change Adaptation in South Asia recommends operationalizing integrated coastal zone management and linking the same with coastal climate change adaptation under appropriately crafted coastal laws to facilitate a move towards sustainable coastal development.

Small Island Developing States are often depicted as being among the most vulnerable of all places to the effects of climate change, and they are a cause celebre of many involved in climate science, politics and the media. Yet while small island developing states are much talked about, the production of both scientific knowledge and policies to protect the rights of these nations and their people has been remarkably slow. This book is the first to apply a critical approach to climate change science and policy processes in the South Pacific region. It shows how groups within politically and scientifically powerful countries appropriate the issue of island vulnerability in ways that do not do justice to the lives of island people. It argues that the ways in which islands and their inhabitants are represented in climate science and politics seldom leads to meaningful responses to assist them to adapt to climate change. Throughout, the authors focus on the hitherto largely ignored social impacts of climate change, and demonstrate that adaptation and mitigation policies cannot be effective without understanding the social systems and values of island societies.

This report identifies governmental actions that can lead to effective management of coastal resources and strenghtening the national capacity for effective coastal resources management through Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). This is a system for controlling development and other human activities that effect the condition of economic resources and the quality of environment in coastal zones. The overall objective of ICZM is to provide for sustainable use of coastal natural resources and for maintenance of biodiversity. Environmentally planned development is reputed to add to economic and social prosperity of a coastal community in the long term. The orientation of the report is toward developing countries, particularly those of the coastal tropics. Fisheries productivity, increased tourism revenus, sustained mangrove forestry, and security from natrual hazard devastation are among the practical benefits of ICZM. ICZM incorporates modern principles of planning and resources management, intensive information bases an interdisciplinary processes. A major objective is to facilitate the interactions of different coastal economic sectors (e.g., shipping, agriculturte, fisheries) toward potimal socio-econopmic outcomes, including resolution of conflicts between sectors. ICZM may be initiated in response to a planning mandate but more often because of a crisis - a use conflict, a severe decline in a resource, or a devasting experience with natural hazards.