Most of the world’s population lives close to the coast and is highly dependent on coastal resources, which are being exploited at unsustainable rates. These resources are being subject to further pressures associated with population increase and the globalization of coastal resource demand. This is particularly so for the Asia-Pacific region which contains almost two thirds of the world’s population and most of the world’s coastal megacities. The region has globally important atmospheric and oceanic phenomena, which affect world climate such as the Asian Monsoon and the El-Niño Southern Oscillation phenomena. The Asia-Pacific region also has highly significant marine diversity but over the last few decades, coastal resources such as mangroves, coral reefs and fisheries have experienced large-scale depletion. The need to find appropriate management solutions to these and other coastal issues is made more complex by the need to take account of international scientific predictions for global climate change and sea-level rise which will further impact on these coasts. The idea for this book arose from a meeting of coastal scientists in Kobe, Japan in May 2003. The meeting was organized by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), an inter-governmental network, comprising 21 member countries, for the promotion of global change research and links between science and policy making in the region.

by Elisabeth Mann Borgese Founder and Honorary President International Ocean Institute Adalberto Vallega has been, for decades, a master and great teacher of integrated coastal management and Mediterranean cooperation. This new book, of an almost en cyclopaedic scope, is a most original contribution to the rapidly growing literature on the subject, of equal value to the academic community which will greatly appreciate the theoretical, historic and philosophical underpinning of the work, and to the practi tioner, the planner, regulator and manager, who will find in these pages most useful "checklists" for his duties and responsibilities. Vallega perceives the need for Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) in the broader context of the ongoing third industrial revolution, which he calls the trans-industrial stage, in its interaction with climate change. There have been profound changes in the economies of the industrialized coun tries. The development of the new High Technologies, including micro-electronics, genetic engineering, new materials, has accelerated the transition from an economic system based primarily on production to one based very largely on services. This, in turn, has facilitated "globalization" of production systems and services, including the financial system, as well as the migration of people The ongoing global "Great Peo ple's Migration" is, generally, from the hinterland to the coasts where, already today, over 60 percent of the human population resides, exercising unprecedented pressures on the coastal and marine environment. Clearly, this justifies the current emphasis, at global, regional and national levels, on the need for coastal management.

Coastal areas around the world are severely stressed due to a myriad of human activities and marine pollution. They are now detrimentally being affected by climate change and sea level rise as well. One major theater most acutely impacted by these phenomena is coastal South Asia, an overcrowded region with low adaptive capacities. Drawing on the experiences of coastal countries and regions beyond South Asia, Towards Sustainable Coastal Development: Institutionalizing Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Coastal Climate Change Adaptation in South Asia recommends operationalizing integrated coastal zone management and linking the same with coastal climate change adaptation under appropriately crafted coastal laws to facilitate a move towards sustainable coastal development.

Biliana Cicin-Sain and Robert W. Knecht are co-directors of the Center for the Study of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware and co-authors of The Future of U.S. Ocean Policy (Island Press, 1998).

Ultimately, this book provides a means to help address and solve the complexity that exists between coastal systems and anthropogenic activities.

Coastal waters around the globe suffer from strain due to a widerange of human activities. The situation calls for a holisticapproach, combining expertise from nature and social science, toreach a balanced and sustainable development of the coastal zone. This important book comprises the proceedings of TheInternational Symposium on Integrated Coastal Zone Management,which took place in Arendal, Norway between 11-14 June 2007. The main objective of the Symposium was to present currentknowledge and to address issues on advice and management related tothe coastal zone. The major themes of papers included in this bookare: Coastal habitats Impacts on coastal systems Integrated Coastal Zone Management Coastal governance Comprising a huge wealth of information, this timely and welledited volume is essential reading for all those involved incoastal zone management around the globe. All libraries in researchestablishments and universities where fisheries and aquaticsciences are studied and taught will need copies of this importantvolume on their shelves.