Beaches and coasts / Пляжи и побережья

The surface of the earth is covered by two contrasting media; land and sea. They meet at the coast. There are, of course, glaciers that span parts of both the land and sea such as in Greenland, Iceland, parts of Alaska and the Canadian Arctic, and on Antarctica. Each of these two surfaces may cover millions of square kilometers over continents and oceans or much less in the case of small oceanic islands or some lakes within continental masses. Nevertheless, a narrow coastal zone separates these two major parts of the earth’s surface. We are defining the coastal zone as that combination of environments that is influenced by marine waters. Typically this includes barrier‐inlet systems, anything that is subjected to astronomical tides, including wetlands and coastal bays.
The world coastline extends for about 440,000km, but the coastal zone comprises less than 0.05% of the area of the landmasses combined. Because nearly half of the global population lives within less than 100 km of the coastline, the coastal zone has become arguably the most critical part of the earth’s surface in terms of global economy and trategies, and management needs. Unfortunately, the coastal zone is also the most desirable property for human development. Much of our development of the coast has had negative impacts on various environments and has caused problems that are very expensive or even impossible to correct <...>