The status of coastal zone management in South Africa
Abstract In this article, an overview of the status of coastal zone management (CZM) in South Africa is presented. Firstly, it provides background to the development of various initiatives to promote sustainable use of coastal resources within the context of sociopolitical changes in South Africa. Thereafter, it examines the progress made with respect to key attributes underpinning most CZM programs. Finally, it identifies obstacles to achieving effective CZM in South Africa and makes recommendations to address these shortcomings. The review reveals that whilst considerable progress has been made in certain areas of program development, such as resource conservation and pollution control, there are several gaps and inadequacies within existing efforts. These include the absence of a clear policy to guide efforts, lack of coordination amongst government departments involved in CZM, as well as inadequacies in our legal and administrative system. The promulgation of a Coastal Zone Management Act and the esta...
Development pressures and management constraints in the coastal zone-the case of KwaZulu-Natal North Coast
Coastal zones worldwide are becoming attractive locations for economic, tourist and residential development. Chua (1993 cited in Shi et al. 2001:2) states that 50% of the world's population inhabits the coastal zone, which represents approximately 10% of the earth's surface. According to Carter (1988), many coastal populations show signs of growth rates that are expanding faster than national populations. In addition to this permanent (somewhat predictable) population, coasts experience seasonal 'booms' in large transient populations-the tourists (French 1997). The element of unpredictability is highlighted in that tourist development differs from others in terms of intensity and number of people located in an area, at any given period of time, resulting in concentrated impacts (French 1997). The increase in leisure time and demand for facilities, has witnessed significant portions of the world's coasts having become committed to tourist development.
The Earth's Angular Momentum Budget on Subseasonal Time Scales
Irregular length of day (LOD) fluctuations on time scales of less than a few years are largely produced by atmospheric torques on the underlying planet. Significant coherence is found between the respective time series of LOD and atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) determinations at periods down to 8 days, with lack of coherence at shorter periods caused by the declining signal-to-measurement noise ratios of both data types. Refinements to the currently accepted model of tidal Earth rotation variations are required, incorporating in particular the nonequilibrium effect of the oceans. The remaining discrepancies between LOD and AAM in the 100- to 10-day period range may be due to either a common error in the AAM data sets from different meteorological centers, or another component of the angular momentum budget.