Florida's coastal setback line—an effort to regulate beachfront development

Abstract

The coastal setback line program in Florida represents an effort to achieve more efficient location decisions, protect beachfront properties from storms, and control beach erosion. This article examines the reasons why the regulation of shoreline development might be necessary, describes the coastal setback program in Florida, discusses some of the problems encountered in its implementation, and examines its potential success.     

Disused shrimp ponds: Options for redevelopment of mangroves

Associated with the rapid increase in the production of cultured marine shrimp has been large‐scale conversion of mangroves to shrimp ponds. Production in many regions has proved to be unsustainable, largely due to inappropriate construction methods, poor environmental conditions, overstocking, and disease. A number of shrimp ponds consequently are unproductive and lie idle. Accurate assessments of pond disuse are difficult to obtain; however, unofficial estimates have suggested that as many as 70% of ponds may be disused after a period in production. Pond construction, shrimp culture, and pond disuse lead to alterations to the physical and chemical properties of soil, hydrological conditions, and the flora and fauna composition of the pond area. The case for restoration, or rehabilitation to a sustainable use, is strong. Consideration must be given to the causes of production failure, the environmental conditions remaining following disuse, the needs and preferences of pond owners and coastal managers, and technical constraints.     

Evolution of coastal hazards policies in the United States

The ocean and Great Lakes coasts of the United States are experiencing widespread economic and environmental damage from coastal flooding and erosion. During this century, public response to such coastal hazards has evolved haphazardly in response to particular disasters. Over time, however, the range of response has broadened as research has helped to refine public understanding of physical coastal processes, and specific disasters have been studied before longer term forms of institutional response have been formulated. Earlier reliance on engineered shoreline protection has been supplemented by beach nourishment, flood insurance, building and land use regulations, coastal zone planning, and other approaches. This article interprets the evolution of such public policy innovations in terms of a model that depicts the interaction of spatially differentiated systems of physical, legal, and cultural phenomena in the coastal context.     

Policy considerations for wetland wastewater treatment in the coastal zone: A case study for Louisiana

Two major environmental problems currently affecting the Louisiana coastal zone are a high rate of wetland loss and high levels of surface water pollution. The application of secondarily treated wastewater to wetlands can be a means of dealing with both of these problems. The benefits of wetland wastewater treatment include improved surface water quality, increased accretion rates to balance a high relative water level rise due mainly to subsidence, improved plant productivity and habitat quality, and decreased capital outlays for conventional engineering treatment systems. Wetland treatment systems can, therefore, be designed and operated to restore deteriorating wetlands. Hydrologically altered wetlands, which are common in the Louisiana coastal zone, are appropriate for receiving municipal and some types of industrial effluent. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined wetland wastewater treatment is effective in treating municipal effluent, it has discouraged the use of natural wetlands for this purpose. At the same time, funds are being used for the construction of artificial wetlands to treat municipal effluent. In the Louisiana coastal zone, however, wetlands are deteriorating and disappearing due to hydrological alteration and a high rate of relative sea level rise. If no action is taken, these trends will continue. Effluent discharge to existing wetlands should be incorporated into a comprehensive management plan designed to increase sediment and nutrient input into subsiding wetlands in the Louisiana coastal zone, improve water quality, and result in more economical waste‐water treatment. The authors believe that the Louisiana example serves as a model for other coastal areas especially in light of projections of accelerated sea level rise.     

The implications of MARPOL Annex V on the management of ports and coastal communities

Abstract

The passage of the Marine Plastics Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 (MPPRCA), which codified Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), has encompassed every commercial and recreational shipping and boating facility in the United States. As a group, these ports, harbors, and marinas form a significant, although proportionately small, portion of the coastline of the country. More important, the economic benefits derived from the complex shoreside infrastructures required for international ocean trade, commercial and recreational fishing, and pleasure boating indicate just how critical it is for these facilities to be in conformance with effective and prudent coastal zone and environmental management practices.     

Consolidation and contestability in the European container handling industry

The first part of this paper brings into discussion some recent changes in the dynamics of the European container handling business, in particular as a result of vertical and horizontal integration strategies of container terminal operators. The industry structure has become sufficiently consolidated to raise a fundamental question about whether market forces are sufficient to prevent the abuse of market power. In this context, reference is made to the theory of contestable markets. The second part of the paper looks more closely to the issue of contestability by means of an exploratory and qualitative study of elements that could prevent other players entering or exiting the European container handling market. As such, a first indication is given of the degree of contestability in the container handling industry.     

Changing ownership structures in the Dutch fleet

The new Dutch shipping policy has given rise to high expectation and curiosity in the world of shipping. This, together with the obvious difficulties of an ex-post study of the effectiveness of such innovative policy, has prompted the authors to take an interest in attempting to investigate changes in ownership of the Dutch fleet 2 years after the new policy has been introduced. To do this, a rather new concept of ‘flagging out’ has been adopted, which is interpreted as a process leading to different degrees of ‘foreignness’ in a shipping operation. In this paper, a method to structure is presented, and ownership information, and changes in it are presented, that are essentially based on the theory of stochastic processes. The data used is the Dutch fleet data, which includes information on the nationality of the flag, parent ownership and management over the period 1994–1998. The results yield interesting insights in the shifts in the ownership and operational structure of shipping companies induced by the new policy. In particular, they allow one to establish the origin of new vessels, in which stage of ownership/operation it is most likely that shifts occur, and to determine the relationship between the different stages of the ‘flagging out’ process. These results, thus, enable an evaluation of the areas in which the policy can be expected to yield results.     

Black Boxes - Pathetic progress but some success now in sight

Little has been written about the ship demolition market, an essential element in the supply/demand balance for shipping. Either technical or economic obsolescence may be the cause for scrapping a ship, where the latter is strongly influenced not only by anticipated freight market levels, but the rate at which more efficient ships are being introduced. The scrap value of a ship is a function both of the realizable value of the materials within the ship and cost of demolition. Both are strongly influenced by the cost structures prevailing in the likely country of demolition. The paper explores not only the fundamentals of the ship demolition market, but the trends from the 1960s to the present. The shipbreaking market has moved in that time from being West European-centred to Asian-centred, concentrating for some years in Taiwan, but now shifting to the Indian subcontinent.