Coastal resources management: Institutions and programs

Book reviews

these guidelines

Coastal management environmental viewpoint COASTAL

ECOSYSTEM

MANAGEMENT A

technical

by John

for

manual

conservation resources

of

the zone

coastal

Clark

John

Wiley

and

New

York,

1977,

Sons, 928

London pp,

and

f28.50,

$48.50

John Clark, a long-time expert and outspoken defender of the coastal environment, has provided a pi&e de r&stance for the coastal constituencies. Coastal Ecosystem Management is the culmination of several years of research and, while overdue, is well worth the wait (weight?). Those who know the author can attest to the fact that he and his colleagues left no stone unturned in their search for relevant materials for this book. The hundreds of bibliographic references, together with more than 300 figures and graphs are, in themselves, invaluable. The viewpoint of the author is unabashedly environmental and the reader is alerted both in the subtitle and

in the preface that the book is advocating the conservation of coastal resources. The lack of a balanced perspective could be considered a weak point, though a larger book is scarcely called for, and an attempt to accomodate the varying philosophies of coastal development and user groups would have detracted from the clear presentation of ecological principals. The major strengths of the volume are the comprehensiveness of its coverage and the fact that it manages to convey scientific information without the use of technical jargon. The comprehensive nature of the work does, however, preclude a detailed treatment of any one issue. This could detract from its use as a basic technical work. Prepared primarily for coastal planners and managers at all levels, Coastal Ecosystem Management is not designed for a onetime reading, but rather as a reference text, and the chapters are arranged with this in mind. Chapter Six is particulary useful as it presents guidelines and standards for twenty four different coastal projects including such things as bulkheads, marinas, powerplants, and tract and site preparation. For the planner who has never grappled with the vagaries of comprehensive coastal management,

US coastal management COASTAL

RESOURCES

MANAGEMENT:

INSTITUTIONSAND

PROGRAMS by Joseph

M. Heikoff

Ann Arbor

Science,

Ann Arbor,

Mich,

1977,287pp,f71.00,$18.15

The US Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 which swept through Congress 1970s on the wave of early

242

should provide valuable insight. The book does not discuss planning or policy directly but rather provides technical informational support for coastal decisionmaking. Given the competing demands for our coastal areas and the tendency for decisions to be made in response to socioeconomic pressures, this book should prove useful in identifying the environmental effects of human activities in this fragile zone. It should be noted, however, that the author concentrates on developing coastlines rather than urbanized areas. The author states in the preface that ‘Environmental management is a form of art that prospers in direct proportion to the scientific knowledge on which it is based’, and Coastal Ecosystem Management will definitely improve the state of that art. Rather than vainly waiting for environmental planners to become scientists, Clark has wisely chosen to take the scientific discipline to the planners and managers. We can hope that this marks the beginning of a trend to translate technical disciplines into formats usable by decisionmakers. Mr Clark has provided a strong foundation of basic ecological management principles and while strict and not always totally practicable, these principles represent the best guidance available. Environmental managers will find this volume a must for their reference shelves. Michele Technical

Information

Office of CoastalZone

Mason

Tetley,

Coordinator, Management, NOAA,

Washington,

DC, USA

- a quiet revolution

environmentalism has had an impact infinitely wider than even the most wetland fervent advocate of preservation or power station resiting could have envisaged just a few years before. The terms of the Act themselves highlight the breadth of its brief. Predictably, they encompass such as designating pragmatic tasks landward and seaward boundaries for the coastal zone, providing an inventory of present and permitted land and water

uses, and identifying areas of particular environmental concern. More fundamentally, however, they also seek to establish priorities for uses of local, state and even national significance - a notion almost too conventional to warrant mention in a European context, but representing a quiet revolution in planning philosophy as far as the USA is concerned. Subsequent events have provided academics and professionals alike with

MARINE

POLICY

July 1978

a fascinating study of the development of management policies and institutional structures, since each coastal state has been encouraged to develop its own approach to be submitted for approval to federally imposed according federal Specifically, requirements. government has established the process by which coastal management policies are to be formulated, while delegating to the responsibility for each state identifying the relevant substantive items to be incorporated and for for policy designing a structure implementation. most consequence, As a commentaries on the evolving pattern of management have focused at the state Joseph level, and in this respect Heikoffs important new study is no exception. As a Professor of Public understandably Administration, he concentrates on institutional structures, taking his exemplification from the states of Maine, Rhode Island and Washington. This choice he justifies on the grounds of the interesting contrasts of background and approach displayed by these states, and on the basis of their relatively advanced degree of plan preparation at the time of writing. It must be said, however, that some disadvantages also accrue from this latter point, since advanced preparation had been achieved only because these three states were already undertaking innovative coastal legislation well before the 1972 Act. Thus, p~adoxically, they display a less than comfortable with the subsequently relationship imposed federal guidelines, and only with difficulty can they be used to triggered development illustrate exclusively by the Coastal Zone Management Act itself. Within these constraints, the book raises an abundance of important issues their far-reaching in sufficiently implications to emerge as general themes despite the very highly sectionalized style of the text. Among them, perhaps four topics can be selected to reflect both the priorities of the subject as a whole and Heikoffs approach to it. In considering these themes we may also be able to evaluate the aims of a book of this type, and the extent to which its application extends beyond national boundaries. In the first place, coastal zone

MARINE

POLICY

July 1978

management is concerned essentially with the search for an acceptable balance between competing land and water uses, and in particular between the requirements of socioeconomic development on the one hand and environmental quality on the other. However, Heikoff’s study makes it clear that during the policy formulation phase, the major conflicts are not so much between different resource uses, but between the many different interested parties who claim the power to participate in decisions on such matters. In other words, the first priority lies in the specification of those bodies which are to have responsibility for deciding what is, and what is not, a permissible use. The problem is exacerbated in the USA by the proliferation of decision making agencies and by the number of levels in the decision making hierarchy. Of paramount significance is the ethic of self-determination (the rights of the individual, especially concerning the exploitation of his own land), and of ‘home rule’ (maximum delegation of planning powers to the local government level). Herein lie the roots of the Coastal Zone Management Act’s revolution, for in recognizing the possibility of local interests being made increasingly subservient to regional, state or federal needs, the Act takes the first tentative steps towards rational resource planning in a country which has hitherto regarded its resources as too plentiful to require any’ husbandry beyond that imposed by the market forces of competitive enterprises. Professor Heikoff deals with these issues cogently and honestly. It is to his credit that he manages to combine a respect for a deeply entrenched national tradition with a firm statement of the frequent incompatibility of local and higher-level interests, and the equally common lack of coincidence between political and resource-unit boundaries. It might be claimed that these conflicts could be still more forcefully highlighted, but one presumes that while such arguments would have considerable appeal in Europe they could have a counterproductive effect by forcing an American readership into a defensive stance. A similar contrast in priorities is apparent in the discussion of the

relationship between coastal and inland A peculiarly American planning. problem arises from the fact that in many states the notion of integrated land-use management now approaching implementation on the coast is Far in advance of any such function of ‘over-government’ ‘government’ or (according to one’s point of view) inland. Thus the designation of the inland boundary of the coastal zone assumes critical importance, since in effect it distinguishes between a new area of rigid development control and the rest of the state where traditional, less rigorous policies apply. Clearly, there is a risk that governments, academics and authors could become obsessed with this problem of the present at the cost of neglecting the problems of the future that derive from the designation of really meaningful seaward boundaries to regulate offshore developments and impacts.

Problems of integration In terms of management structure rather than policy substance, probably the most significant issue raised by Professor Heikoff is that of the problems inherent in grafting a new planning philosophy on to an existing bureaucratic and legislative framework. In principle, such difficulties could be avoided by the formulation of a completely new management structure in which would be vested all the relevant powers of planning and implementation, many of which would previously have been held by other agencies. This administratively elegant solution is rejected by Heikoff on grounds of probable poor cost-effectiveness, and because interagency friction could be increased by such a radical procedure. With regret, one might also quote the demise of the California Coastal Commissions as an indication that the imposition of an additional tier of government is unpopular in practice. The lesson for both the USA and other countries is that the alternative approach of designing possibly complex interagency structures may be a necessary if evil integrated environmental resource management is to be achieved at any level above that of local government. Numerous variations on this theme are possible, and it is in

Book reviews this respect that the choice of states is particularly appropriate. Maine displays a decentralized but highly complex interagency network, while Rhode Island has opted for a relatively simple and fairly well centralized structure. In both cases, interagency and interlevel disputes seem likely to abound in respect of political power conflicts as well as competition between resource uses, a fear neatly encapsulated in the suggestion that ‘although there was a great deal of government in the Rhode Island coastal zone, there did not seem to be much effective management’. In some senses, Washington offers an even more startling approach, with its early experience in coastal legislation being reflected in almost exclusive reliance on existing agencies. Strong decentralization is apparent in the retention of primary management responsibility at the local level. It remains to be seen to what extent such compromise frameworks will satisfy the federal requirements stipulated by the 1972 Act, and whether they will work effectively in practice to reduce resource use conflicts and protect non-local interests.

Massive funding Time is also of the essence in another context. The perceived urgency of the induced by problems increasing

pressure on coastal resources is admirably demonstrated by the massive federal funding made available to subsidize management plan preparation at state level. Within the individual states, however, there is a more ambiguous reflection of urgency manifested in the contrast of priorities between states such as Rhode Island and Maine (attempting to implement a rolling programme of interim regulations while more detailed plans are considered simultaneously), Washington (with local authorities already in possession of local plans which could direct development control policy until a State Master Plan was available), and California (with an unashamed application of somewhat arbitrary yet flexible Commission rulings throughout the lengthy gestation of the integrated State Coastal Plan). Once again, other countries have much to learn from such examples, for the sudden imposition of major regional land-use demands - particularly by land-based and offshore energy facilities _ continues to catch the authorities with (figuratively speaking) their planning trousers around their bureaucratic ankles. The tendency towards doing as little as possible until pressure of events makes action imperative is as strong as ever, and any change in this situation is rendered difficult by financial stringency and by the trans.Atlantic feeling that

The North Atlantic-threats NEW STRATEGIC NORTH edited Johan IPC

FACTORS

IN THE

ATLANTIC by

Christoph

Bertram

and

J. Holst Science

and

rec~n~i~gy

Press,

effiidf5rd, and Unjversitetsf~rtaget, Oslo, 1977, 194 pp. fl 1.50, $25.00

The book is a joint production by the Norwegian Institute of International London-based Affairs the and International Institute of Strategic It was conceived at a Affairs. conference held in 1975 in Iceland of representatives of the two institutions. It

244

too much government is as undesirable as too little. The value of Heikoff’s exposition lies, therefore, in its ability to allow us to learn from the experience of others. The highly detailed exemplification leads to a somewhat indigestible text and makes the reader work hard to identify points of principle, but it is also the surest foundation for genuine institutional comparison and evaluation. By focusing on implementation in terms of management structure, the author may on occasion divert attention from an equally important questioning of the basic planning philosophy, which is at present encouraging but not without its imperfections. However, the existence of deficiencies in intent or application should not blind us to the fact that the USA has moved farther and faster than any other country in respect to the specific problems of land and water use at the coast. The US Coastai Zone M~agement Act Amendments of 1976 demonstrate an internal awareness of the scope for continued improvement, and it is to be hoped that other governments will show an equal willingness to learn, to innovate and, above all, to implement.

/lJ.J. Clark, University

of Southampton, UK

to balance of power

is concerned with the changes expected in the next few years in the North Atlantic, considered as a secruity area, as a result of the dynamics of modern maritime technology and the changes in the Law of the Sea. These subjects are examined mainly from the point of view of the two superpowers, Canada and the Scandinavian states, Iceland, Norway and Denmark. Separate chapters deal with conflict management and arms control, the future of anti-submarine warfare, and the question of resource exploitation and the security implications of this under the Law of the Sea. The new strategic factors are enumerated by the director of the IISS,

Dr Christoph Bertram, in the opening chapter. First is the rapid growth in the Soviet Navy and the concentration of the majority of its combat forces, particularly of its submarine forces, in the two Northern fleets based in the Baltic and White Seas. The number of Soviet vessels actually deployed in Atlantic waters at any one time, being small, probably represents the best they can do in time of peace, but conceals the availability of substantial reserves capable of use in an emergency or whenever a show or force seems likely to show political advantage. Second is the range of modern naval technological development. Surface vessels are much more vulnerable to

MARINE

POLICY

July 1978