103 



To determine what the scientific and technological requirements are, 

 one should begin with the question : What scientific and technological 

 services are necessary in order to do an effective job (after having 

 carefully defined the essential features of that job) of planning and 

 managing the resources of the coastal zone? Researchers, scientists, 

 and engineers can help frame and define the question, but if the object 

 is to plan and manage more or most efi'ectively, then it is the planners 

 and managers, whose needs must be met, who must initiate definition 

 of the job. They must, of course, be competent to the ask. The milieu 

 in which the coastal zone management unit must operate in order to 

 establish the administrative apparatus of its scientific agency is also 

 highly relevant. 



After laying these foundations, we can consider the nature of the 

 scientific and technological establishments to be employed, used, or 

 made available. Then, considering the nature and requirements of an 

 effective, productive, responsive, and good quality scientific and tech- 

 nical establishment, it is possible to suggest the "anatomy" of an 

 effective "lower or intermediate level coastal zone laboratory'' — one 

 which actually and regularly works with the in situ planning and 

 management units. 



Most of the study groups that have considered seriously the problems 

 of coastal zone management conclude that the basic management units 

 must be at least at the State or interstate level for various excellent 

 reasons. Aside from the historical, constitutional, political, and other 

 considerations, among the most potent reasons for this conclusion is 

 a natural one— management of the level and type needed requires local 

 knowledge and attention in detail. Experience indicates that such 

 activities cannot be handled from remote central authorities. To cen- 

 tralize all coastal zone planning and management would be folly. 

 Economically, it would be foolish, too. There is always a strong urge to 

 simplify by centralizing. With natural resource management prob- 

 lems, this is often impossible. With coastal zone management units, 

 it is impossible. 



Since some division at lesser political and geographical levels must 

 be suffered, the problem is to make the coastal zone management units 

 local but not too local, to make them responsive to local needs but not 

 witness, powerless, or otherwise ineffective. This is a political engineer- 

 ing problem. The principal point to be made is : To be effective, the 

 national coastal zone management scheme must operate through lesser 

 units. The research or scientific service complement (s) must also be 

 organized along these same lines. 



As others in this conference have indicated repeatedly, the complex 

 nature of the environments and resources of the coastal zone is equaled 

 or exceeded only by the complexity of user demands and needs, the 

 numbers of users and the complexities of the institutions society has 

 devised for dealing with them. Thus, an effective coastal zone manage- 

 ment "system" (the term "system" is used advisedly since it is question- 

 able whether in most, or manj^ cases any single agency will be used by 

 a local, State, or regional subdivision in this capacity) has to be 

 organized to handle such complex problems. Its scientific and tech- 

 nological advisory group, the "coastal zone laboratory," must be also. 

 The personnel would be drawn from the scientific and engineering and 

 other professional areas which are required to conduct balanced 

 studies and give meaningful balanced and well-documented opinions. 



