WHERE THE LAND AND WATER MEET: COASTAL RESOURCES OVER THE NEXT 50 YEARS

摘要

In the United States (U.S.), coastal population is large. If you count only the counties that are on the shorelines of the oceans or the Great Lakes, one finds 39% or 123.3 million of the overall U.S. population in less than 10% (275,351 mi~2) of the nation's land area. If one counts the Coastal Watershed Counties (just under 20% of the land area or 511,971 mi~2), then the coastal U.S. population rises to 52% or 163.8 million people all of whom are in harm's way. Population projections have coastal population growing to 134 million by 2020. Finding a definitive number in terms of coastal population globally is a bit more difficult, but if one uses a 200 km (124.274 mi) buffer, over 3 billion people or roughly half the world's population live in the coastal zone. Two things that are definitely true about global population are that it is growing faster than inland areas and that it is concentrating in urban areas.