The Coasts We Live In: Can There Be a Single Definition for a Coastal Zone?

Abstract

Throughout the history of humankind, people have settled along seashores. The gradual accumulation of population and industrial activity in coastal areas has created preconditions for coastalisation — the movement of people and socio-economic activity to marine coasts. To date, coastal areas have a higher rate of economic development, fostering migration and an influx of capital across the globe. Scholars and policymakers voice concerns about the asymmetry of regional development and the increasing anthropogenic impact on the coastal ecosystem. It reinforces the importance of coastal zone management. In this study, we use an example of the Baltic region to identify the coastalisation patterns in the Baltic region and answer the question, whether there can be a single definition of the coastal zone of the Baltic region. According to a broad definition, the Baltic macro-region is nearly all coastal and, consequently, all settlements are influenced by the coastalisation effect. We have studied the urban population dynamics in 128 cities of 45 coastal regions through the lens of various characteristics of a coastal city — the distance from the sea (10, 50, 100, and 150 km), location in a coastal region (NUTS 2), availability of a port and its primary maritime activity (tankers, cargo, fishing, passenger, recreational vessels and others). The research results suggest that despite the strong coherence of the Baltic region countries, there should not be a single delimitation approach to defining the coastal zone. Overall, the most active marine economic processes occur in the zone up to 10 km from the seacoast and 30 km from ports and port infrastructure. However, in the case of Sweden, Poland, and Latvia, the coastal zone can be extended to 50 km, and in Germany — up to 150 km inland.

Geoinformation representation of maritime knowledge flows: new frontiers of coastalization

“…By accounting for maritime knowledge flows in the delimitation of the coastal zone, we deepen our understanding of coastalization and enhance the methods of its registration. The traditional delimitation of the coastal zone (and coastalization) done by measuring the geographical proximity to the sea of human settlements [14,17] or the clustering of economic activity [15,16], could now be combined with an assessment of functions performed by entities. The extended understanding of the coastal economy was previously verified by Morrissey and O'Donoghue [22], who have mapped the inland communication within a maritime economic network.…”

“…land elevation) [13], migration processes and settlement structure [14], the location of port infrastructure [15], industrial facilities [16], etc. The range of propagation of the coastalization effect may vary depending on the country, including both local zones up to 1 km, and coastal areas up to 10, 50, 150 and even 200 km [17].…”

Dichotomy in the Distribution of Maritime Activity Between Marine Sub-Regions of Europe

“…Over the years the density of the population living in coastal areas has been increasing. The estimations vary depending on the research scope and the delimitation of the coastal zone in particular (Mikhaylov and Plotnikova, 2021) but the general trend has been verifiedthe urbanization and the sprawl of coastal cities and agglomerations (Barragan and de Andres, 2015).…”