Coastal Governance provides a clear overview of how U.S. coasts are currently managed and explores new approaches that could make our shores healthier. Drawing on recent national assessments, Professor Richard Burroughs explains why traditional management techniques have ultimately proved inadequate, leading to polluted waters, declining fisheries, and damaged habitat. He then introduces students to governance frameworks that seek to address these shortcomings by considering natural and human systems holistically.
The book considers the ability of sector-based management, spatial management, and ecosystem-based management to solve critical environmental problems. Evaluating governance successes and failures, Burroughs covers topics including sewage disposal, dredging, wetlands, watersheds, and fisheries. He shows that at times sector-based management, which focuses on separate, individual uses of the coasts, has been implemented effectively. But he also illustrates examples of conflict, such as the incompatibility of waste disposal and fishing in the same waters. Burroughs assesses spatial and ecosystem-based management's potential to address these conflicts.
The book familiarizes students not only with current management techniques but with the policy process. By focusing on policy development, Coastal Governance prepares readers with the knowledge to participate effectively in a governance system that is constantly evolving. This understanding will be critical as students become managers, policymakers, and citizens who shape the future of the coasts.
Preface
Chapter 1. Coastal Challenges -State of the coasts -Drivers for environmental change -The ocean commissions -Management goals and processes -Organization of the book
Chapter 2. Policy Process -Problems -Solutions -Selection -Implementation -Evaluation -Summary
Chapter 3. Wastewater -Sewage and disease: A problem -Sewage treatment: A solution -Making treatment a requirement: Selection and implementation -Did sewage treatment work? Evaluation -Unfinished business -Sector-based management -Summary
Chapter 4. Oil -Oil resources: Origins and importance -Oil drilling technology -Environmental and social impacts of offshore oil -Law -The seaweed rebellion -Summary
Chapter 5. Dredging -The growth of shipping -Dredging process -Environmental impacts -Law of dredging and disposal -Regulating the disposal of contaminated sediments -Gridlock -Enduring change? -Summary
Chapter 6. Wetlands -The nature of coastal wetlands -The value of coastal wetlands -Uses and consequences -""No net loss"" -- a goal -One wetland resource multiple agencies -Management practices -The coastal wetland program assessed -Summary
Chapter 7. Managing Coastal and Ocean Spaces -Uses of coastal lands and waters -Conflicts -The Coastal Zone Management Act -Other space-based coastal management programs -Spatial management techniques -Evaluation of state programs -Spatial planning and management of ocean waters -Summary
Chapter 8. Ecosystem Governance -Nitrogen links among land/sea and society/nature -Ecosystem-based management in concept -Degree of change -Policy elements -Incremental change: Marine sanctuaries -Fundamental change: Ecosystem services -Summary
Chapter 9. Watersheds and Bays -Evolution of river basin management -River/watershed management: an agency profile -Managing the landscape to preserve/restore bays -Watershed management for the Chesapeake Bay -Ecosystem management for watersheds and bays -Summary
Chapter 10. Fisheries -Expansion of US fisheries -Biological limits to the fishery -Fishery management -Fisheries management councils -Fisheries management as ecosystem governance -Incremental change -Fundamental change -Who decides? -Summary
Chapter 11. Conclusion -Ends and means -Sector-based management -Spatial management -Ecosystem-based management -Change
Questions for Discussion References Further Reading Glossary Index
"The policy concepts in Coastal Governance resonate strongly with the latest thinking about complexity theory as applied to the adaptive management of social-ecological systems. Burroughs succinctly and thoughtfully analyzes the ingrained habit of applying rigid, shortsighted policies to the management of the multiscale, self-organized intricacies of coastal ecosystems."
