Coastal zone management strategies in rural areas in Malta (Imgiebah case study)

Abstract

Why exactly most of the closed borders countries seek urgently for a good relationship with their open borders neighbours? And why these countries do their best to keep that relation as good as they can? Geographers claims on dividing world's countries into two kinds: Coastal and Non-coastal countries. It's very clear from that previous division the high importance of coasts for countries as a scale by which countries can be divided upon, but where did coasts acquire that importance from? The coastal Zone is defined as the inner part of the continental shelf, a few kilometres in width. It is the interface between atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere1 . It constitutes a high energetic zone with very active and complex dynamics in which the quaternary record shows a history of considerable instability and it is logical to assume that this instability is going to continue probably even to increase because of human interference. But facts prove that earth exists along time before human beings and consequently coasts exist before, too, and during all that long time, these coasts passed in many environmental, human races, geological, geomorphological changing's related to people settlements, tourism, erosion, flooding, storms, and constructions. As a result of that a lot of problems and threats have appeared that affect the coastal areas negatively if not well managed. Generally speaking, all activities (onshore, near shore, offshore) must be carefully planned, examined and monitored, but also need a high level of protection (harmony of the environmental coastal zone life, pollution, preservations) i.e. sustainable management of coastal areas. Having a look at the title of the current thesis, one can easily pick up the key words that represent the main theme of the thesis. These are consequently: Coast, Zone, Management, Strategies, Rural Coast and Islands. In a very simple formula, the coast simply represents a place. The word zone is related to the coast itself; it shows the boundaries of that place (the coast). Management here is to manage that place which has specific borders. Strategies are the tools needed for management to be implemented. Rural coast represents the area of the case study in the thesis (IMGIEBAH). Finally, the world island exists here to remind of how very important coasts for islands are. Let alone the study tackles an area in Malta which after all an island, and particularly small or very small island where there aren't much natural sources, and therefore, nothing can be compensated in case of any type of mismanagement of the main natural resource of this island (Malta).