Assessing The Vulnerability Of Coastal Tourism To Sea Erosion- The Case Of Ada East District

ODIKRO GODWIN 97 PAGES (24659 WORDS) Geography Thesis

Coastal erosion has become a major problem to coastal dwellers worldwide as its effects of destruction to properties, flooding and inundations continue to render populations homeless. Coastal erosion is defined as the wearing away of material from a coastal profile due to imbalance in the supply and export of material from a certain section (Marchand, 2010). Coastal erosion is noted to have burdened most nations‘ financial budgets in the mitigation and management of this quandary. Marchand (2010, p. 4) noted that France spends over €20 million yearly on sea erosion mitigation with the Netherlands making provision for €41 million in their annual budget as cost to sand nourishment measures. Elsewhere, in Portugal as much as €500 million was the cost to dune and seafront rehabilitation and other hard defence rehabilitation works since 1995 (Marchand, 2010, p.4).

Small and Nicholls (2003) estimated that globally 1.2 billion people live within 100 km of the coast, constituting about 23% of the world‗s population. A further projection indicates an increase in coastal population to 50% by 2030 (cited in Adger et al., 2005). The increased human population along the coast coupled with the highly multi-functional nature of the coastal ecological system makes the zone among the least stable and the most physically changeable of the earth‗s landform system (Pearce and Kirk, 1986).