Author(s)

S Kostopoulou

Abstract

During the last century, coastal urbanization has grown dramatically and coastal cities have expanded rapidly, strongly influencing marine and coastal ecosystems, and raising the preservation of the coastal environment for sustainable development as a major urban planning issue. This paper discusses the main environmental problems in urban coastal areas, the socio-economic activities that cause these problems and the benefits identified from the implementation of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management approach. The paper focuses on the urban coastal zone of Thessaloniki, the economic capital of Northern Greece, where population increase and economic growth exert a remarkable pressure on the coastal environment, also due to the non-integrated urban coast planning. An Integrated Coastal Zone Management framework is proposed in which ecosystem, social and cultural heritage impacts of strategic economic activities are analysed. 1. Introduction Coastal areas are of strategic importance worldwide: over 80% of the world’s states border an ocean or an adjacent sea. They are home to a large percentage of people. a major source of food and raw materials, a vital link for transport and trade, the location of some of the most valuable habitats, and a favoured destination for leisure time. Being the sea-land interface, coastal zones have become the most attractive part of the world for human development and population centres have been established there.

Keywords