Chapter 1 The Coastal Zone 



I. DEFINITION 



The coastal zone is a region of transition 

 between two environments, the Idnd and the sea. 

 The coastal zone has been defined as that part of 

 the land affected by its proximity to the sea and 

 that part of the ocean affected by its proximity to 

 the land. In addition to the shoreline, the coastal 

 zone includes the inshore part of the Continental 

 Shelf seaward and the estuaries landward. It also 

 includes the Great Lakes. The Marine Resources 

 and Engineering Development Act of 1966' de- 

 fined the area as: 



(a) the oceans, (b) the Continental Shelf of the 

 United States, (c) the Great Lakes, (d) seabed and 

 subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the 

 coasts of the United States to the depth of two 

 hundred meters, or beyond that limit, to where 

 the depths of the superjacent waters admit of the 

 exploitation of the natural resources of such areas, 

 (e) the seabed and subsoil of similar submarine 

 areas adjacent to the coasts of islands which 

 comprise United States territory, and (fj the 

 resources thereof. 



For this report the coastal zone is taken as the 

 immediate shoreline, the Continental Shelf, estu- 

 aries, and the Great Lakes. 



II. THE SHORELINE 



The immediate shoreline is the most visible part 

 of the coastal zone— and the most turbulent. 

 Shown by Table 1, the total coastline of the 

 United States may be represented as 17 or 101 

 thousand miles in length depending on the defini- 

 tion of detail. 



Within the U.S. coastline ranging from the 

 Alaska Arctic to Florida Tropic can be found 

 virtually all the classic coastal landforms.^ 



Table 1 



LENGTH OF COASTLINE OF THE UNITED 



STATES, BY COASTAL REACH 



(Statute miles) 



'P.L. 89-454,33 U.S.C. 1107. 



2 



A presentation of coastal landforms is contained in 

 Natural Coastal Environments of the World, W. C. Putnam 

 et al, Office of Naval Research Contract, 1960, (Nonr- 

 233(06), NR 388.013). 



Source: Information for this table was prepared in part 

 by Surveys and Research Corp., 1967, for the National 

 Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Develop- 

 ment, based on data from Department of Commerce, 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Department of Defense, 

 Corps of Engineers (for Great Lakes information). For 

 more detailed data by States, see Tables 1 and 2, 

 Chapter 2. 



Measurements were made with a unit of 30 minutes lati- 

 tude. The corresponding mileage varies slightly, but at 

 the latitude of San Francisco, 30" is about 34.5 miles. 

 Shoreline of bays and sounds is included to where such 

 waters narrow to the width of the unit measure, and the 

 distance across at such point is included. 



2 



As above, except that a unit measure of three statute 

 miles was used. 



As above, except that a unit measure of 100 feet was 

 used. 



III. THE CONTINENTAL SHELF 



The Continental Shelf generally has been recog- 

 nized as the waters and seabed extending seaward 

 from the coastline to about 100 fathoms (600 

 feet), where the sea floor commences a steep slope 

 to the ocean depths. The shelf s width is approxi- 

 mately 50 miles but varies considerably depend- 

 ing on geomorphology. The shelf has been given 

 new importance in recent years by the ratification 

 of the International Convention of the Continental 

 Shelf in 1958. Here the shelf was defined as: 



UI-7 



