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Coastal change and management
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Coasts are areas where the land meets the sea. Home to more than one billion people around the world, coastal areas are some of the most visited and heavily populated areas on the planet. Human activities in coastal areas have affected many of the natural environmental processes there. This has led to a wide range of issues including a loss of biodiversity, high levels of pollution, erosion, and rising sea levels due to climate change. In fact, coasts are one of the Earth’s most threatened environments. Coasts are critically important – not only to the people who live along them, but also to the health of the planet. Around the world, geographers are playing a vital role in developing strategies to manage these problems and protect coasts for future generations.
Source 1 The Cinque Terre coast in Italy faces a range of management issues. The most pressing of these is the impact of the 2.5 million tourists who visit the area’s five villages each year.
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