Summary

Coastal ecosystems make up some of the most important and, yet, most endangered, regions in the world. The protection of the unique processes that take place in these ecosystems requires that partnerships be formed among ecologists, resource managers and planners.

Experienced in the challenges of coastal system analysis, the contributors to this book provide multidisciplinary guidance on the assessment and management of environmental impacts caused by development. Each chapter examines an issue important to these fragile ecosystems, first presenting a non-technical summary of the issue and a review of the current state of the knowledge, then following with data and a more detailed consideration of the topic. Functioning both as a practical guide, accessible to nonscientists, and as a rigorous scientific source book, Changing Land Use Patterns in the Coastal Zone will be useful to ecologists, urban and regional planners, resource managers, policymakers and students. While many of the case studies included in this volume are drawn from studies in the southeastern United States, the examples and lessons provided will be relevant to those working in all coastal environments.

Choice Review

This volume's title suggests a review of coastal management practices in a wide variety of geographical regions. Instead, this work offers a discussion of ecological and demographic patterns peculiar to the southeastern US coast, notably South Carolina and Georgia--areas of especially intense development. Chapter topics include land use policies, urban growth models, biodiversity, marsh and creek hydrodynamics, nutrient cycling, groundwater inputs, gases, contaminants, models of estuarine processes, and microbial indicators of human impact. Except for the introduction and afterword, all chapters are prefaced by brief summaries penned by outreach specialists and designed to translate the technical information, presented by and for professionals, that follows. Although the text is not free of typographical and other errors (e.g., "slat marsh"), and the index is thin (e.g., it excludes specific pesticides), the content is well written and rich in examples and references, both classic and contemporary. This volume presents up-to-date information and ideas in the context of a "precautionary approach" in which the available scientific data are merged with sensible management practices and periodically reassessed. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. R. E. Knowlton George Washington University