The Shoreline between Nature and Society, a Changing Heritage - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 189

United States of America was born. If the population in the American
megacity is so high, it is due to the waves of emigrants originating
from all over Europe but, with a closer look, the ports are the first to
fill up, then the population is redistributed within the cities, however,
this dynamic does not explain the dense occupation that we witness
along the coastline. The American growth in population in this case is
due to the tourism development in the beach resorts that followed the
classical hierarchy over time. Nantucket, the fishing village of cod and
whale (Moby Dick), is very different from Atlantic City in New
Jersey, which, in spite of its size, is up to the evocative names given to
its resorts such as Seaside, or Carolina Beach, etc. Elsewhere in the
colonial world, the same logic applies, from Indian trading posts to the
Cape region or the Chilean coast, not to mention Shanghai or
Singapore. Let us add to this that the overturn of the Chinese political
direction had a significant influence on coastal regions by increasing
their importance thereby favoring the growth of large ports. This
phenomenon is a recent one, yet it fits within the logic of
contemporary globalization, which involves the opening up of the seas
and coastlines. Furthermore, it reinforces the poles while the growth
of tourism, since the end of the 19th Century, progressively filled the
gaps and increased the pressure imposed on coastal zones. France,
along with the Spanish coastline, is particularly exposed to this
phenomenon. If we look at it in numbers, in 2006, the coastal urban
communities welcomed 10% of the population, i.e. 2.5 times more
than the national average; and if we include overseas territories
(excluding French Guiana), the numbers amount to 317 inhabitants
per km 2 . This highlights how strong the pressure on islands can be. If
we distinguish the coastal fronts, it is easy to see that the pressure is
more acute along Mediterranean coasts than on the Atlantic front. The
magnet effect of coasts combined with the attraction to sunny climates
suggests that this increase is strongly related to the expansion of
tourist activities. The growing attraction to coastlines is not without
consequences for the resource uses both in terms of space and
ecosystems. Given the rarity of the space and the fragility of these
ecosystems, the competition between users generates conflicts that
ought to be managed intelligently. This involves respecting each of
the user groups as none could be deemed illegitimate.