TASK 4.1: IN-DEPTH CASE ANALYSIS – GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFICIENCY – ENV.B.2./SER/2010/0059 PROJECT TEAM: IEEP, ECOLOGIC, GHK, SYZYGY, TAU, UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP, VITO GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN-DEPTH CASE ANALYSIS THEME 3: MULTIFUNCTIONAL USE OF COASTAL AREAS Author: Marcelline Bonneau (GHK),
[email protected], +32 2 2750123 1 Introduction The coast is the area where the land meets the sea and more particularly the “air-sea-land interface zone around continents and islands” (Firn Crichton Roberts Ltd and University of Strathclyde 2000). As such, it has a total length of 89,000 km in the EU. In addition, half the population of the Member States which have a coastline live within 50 km of the sea (European Commission, 2000). Coasts are defined by their richness in biodiversity elements (see,for example, European Environment Agency, 2002, and the INTERREG IIIC Deduce project). In particular, eight out of the 40 EU-listed priority habitats of wild fauna and flora fall into the coastal habitat. Also, a third of the EU's wetlands are located on the coast as well as more than 30% of the Special Protected Areas designated under the Birds Directive (79/409/EEC). In addition, the reproduction and nursery grounds of most fish and shellfish species of economic value also lie in coastal areas and account for almost half of the jobs in the fisheries sector (European Commission, 1997). At the same time, coasts play an important role in the development of local and regional economies. A study carried out by the University of the Aegean (2001), showed that the most important sectors in economic terms in the coastal zones were mostly tourism and leisure, agriculture and food, sea fisheries, ports and shipping, and residential housing.