The deterioration of the coastal environment : The unique experiences

 

Land use and human populations

Approximately 40% of the world's population lives within close proximity to the coast, i.e. within approximately 100 km of the coast. This means that some 3 billion people depend in some way on coastal and marine ecosystems, habitat and food resources, building materials, construction sites, and agricultural and recreational areas, while using coastal areas as dumping grounds for sewage, garbage and toxic substances waste. The pressure on living and abiotic resources in coastal areas is projected to increase further due to urbanization, industrialization and transportation. This section considers the physical structure and land use transformation of coastal areas, as well as anticipated future developments (e.g. offshore airports, wind energy parks, land reclamation, etc.) Coastal areas present a heavy burden that requires careful management. Appropriate guidelines are clearly needed globally to respond to these increasing pressures, which poses a major challenge for the scientific community to provide scientific information on possible solutions, as well as the predicted effects of different measures. There is a need for systematic research on the ecosystems associated with large coastal urban agglomerations. The development of so-called megacities has increased the tendency to concentrate people in coastal areas, see the paper Coastal Cities and Sea Level Rise. Clearly, this expands the impact on the marine environment beyond traditional sewage and waste, adding factors such as increased disaster risk, excessive noise levels and heat.

Beach cleanup activity

        We have participated in beach cleanup activities in 2019. The venues of the activities are all on the main seaside of Johor Bahru. The three beach or seaside that we cleanup is: Desaru Beach, Kampung Jeti Nelayan (Sungai Tebrau), Sungai Pontian. The situation of ocean garbage was very terrible. 

(The three location of the beach cleanup activity)

(Conclusion of the cleanup activity)

       We have travel total of 139.8km of these three different seaside and beach from Southern University College. Not only that we also collected total of 502kg of recycle items from the beach cleanup activity.  We hope that the deterioration of the coastal environment or issue of ocean garbage can be aware peoples and government should take noticed with this serious issue.