The coast is the boundary where land meets the sea.
The landscape is a collection of natural landforms and man-made features that form visible features of an area.
Over 200 countries and island states have a coastline.
Over 1 billion people live at the coast or on a coastal plain less than 10m above sea level.
Many players (stakeholders) carry out activities at the coast, e.g: government departments, retired people, local councils, engineers, poor people in developing countries, tourists, transport companies, fishing businesses, shipping firms, offshore wind energy companies, port managers, bored geographers on school trips, geologists, environmentalists...
Integrated coastal zone management is needed to coordinate these human activities with natural processes.