PART IV. IMPORTANCE OF THE ESTUARINE ZONE 



Introduction 



The comprehensive management program presented in part III es- 

 taiblishes a framework to reguilate man's activities in the estuarine zone 

 to preserve and develop the estuarine resource while achieving full use 

 of it. Effective management, however, must be firmly based on an un- 

 derstanding of what the estuarine resource is, what use it has to man, 

 and what impact man's acitivities have on it. 



The comprehensive management program is in essence a working 

 relationship among the institutional, biophysical, aud socioeconomic 

 enviromnents in the estuarine zone. This part of the report deals with 

 the existing relationship between the biophysical environment and 

 the socioeconomic environment. It describes first the estuarine zone 

 without man ; then it considers how man uses the estuarine zone and 

 how these activities affect the land, the water, and the life. Finally, it 

 seeks to show what Avill happen to the estuarine zone unless man con- 

 trols his impact on this part of his environment. 



The biophysical eiiA^ironment divides naturally into 10 geographical 

 regions, each dominated by a different combination of environmental 

 conditions. The discussion revolves about these biophysical regions as 

 the primary subdivisions of the natural environment of the estuarine 

 zone. Because of the similarity of environmental conditions within it, 

 each region hais estuarine systems, uses, and problems which are typical 

 of the region, if not miique to it. 



The use of the biophysical regions as the basic units for discussion 

 illustrates regional similarities and differences. These serve not only to 

 point out the essential imity of the estuarine zone as a unique resource, 

 but also to emphasize how an effective national management program 

 can use knowledge gained in one region to solve prdblems in another. 



Certain photographs of a purely illustrative nature, and not essential 

 to the continuity of the text, have been omitted in this part of the re- 

 port as presently duplicated. 



(61) 



