Introduction: Marine and Coastal Resource Management: Principles and Practice

The idea for this textbook originated with a need to provide undergraduate students studying the broad discipline of marine and coastal resource management at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK, with a framework of reference and support for their studies over the duration of their three-to-four-year degree programme. In many ways, marine and coastal resource management is very similar to the discipline of geography. It is an integrating discipline and one that draws upon the expertise, tools and techniques from many other disciplines. In addition, it is also a vocational degree that ultimately provides a basis for students to pursue a broad-based career that falls under the terms coastal or marine management. The coast involves aspects of the landward side of the coastline, including the hydrological catchment, and the marine or offshore environment.