There is an abstract quality about recreational 
experiences that defy mechanistic analyses. A trip 
to Malibu Beach, California, may be as much to 
see the houses of the famous as to use the public 
beach facilities. Or a trip to the Cape Cod National 
Seashore may involve visits to antique shops and 
country inns as much as wading in the surf. A trip 
to Atlantic City or Miami Beach may be prompted 
as much by the commercial attractions as by the 
quality of the public beach. Coastal recreation is 
often a multifaceted mixture of public and private 
activities interspersed with natural and_ secular 
experiences. 
There are major industrial installations with recre- 
ational potential, such as powerplant sites, timber 
company lands, and petroleum company holdings. 
In 1972, the Department of the Interior held a 
series of regional meetings on recreational issues, 
at which the relative roles of the private and public 
sector were discussed. The delineation between the 
government role and the role of private enterprise 
was found to be unclear. The participants reached 
the following conclusions: 1*° 
129 U.S. Department of the Interior. America Voices Its Recre- 
ation Concerns. Washington, D.C., 1972, p. 36. 
® Private enterprise should play the primary role 
where charges are to be made for facilities or 
services and there is a reasonable prospect for 
profit. 
® Commercialized forms of recreation should be 
left to private enterprise, while government should 
provide the public with natural, historic, cultural, 
and archeological sites. 
e Private enterprise should work closely with public 
agencies in planning and providing recreation 
facilities. 
e Private operations should be kept free of undue 
competition from public operations. 
e The public should recognize that investment by 
private enterprises reduces the need for public 
recreation investment. 
® Private enterprise should act as a partner and 
constructive critic of government’s recreational 
enterprises. 
It is clear that the general public considers recrea- 
tion to be a joint venture between public and 
private interests. Coastal recreation is not mutually 
exclusive. Recreational planning must optimize the 
mixture of private and public enterprise to best serve 
all sectors of the user public. 
Ocean and Coastal Hazards 
Introduction 
Along with the fabulous resources of the coasts 
and oceans comes a distinctive set of natural coastal 
hazards that should be considered in public and pri- 
vate decisionmaking. The ten most important natural 
hazards (table 4-10) occur with some regularity. 
For example, in the document entitled, Some Devas- 
Table 4-10.—Natural hazards of U.S. oceans and 
coasts 
Area affected 
Hazard Ocean Coast 
1. Hurricanes and storm surges x x 
2. Floods and flash floods x 
3. Tornadoes (water spouts) x 
and severe storms xX x 
4. Earthquakes x1 x 
5. Tsunamis xt x 
6. Coastal erosion x 
7. Land subsidence x 
8. Landslides & x2 x 
9. Avalanches x2 xX 
10. Volcanoes x3 x 
1 Earthquakes and tsunamis are related. They affect ocean 
users primarily through tsunamis, the effects of which are pri- 
marily near shore where water shoals as it approaches the coast. 
2 Effects of landslides and avalanches on the ocean are the 
resultant localized tsunamis. 
3 Volcanoes can create new islands or undersea barriers for 
ships. Earthquakes sometimes occur with major volcanic action. 
tating North Atlantic Hurricanes of the 20th Cen- 
tury, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin- 
istration tracks 54 selected hurricanes that hit the 
coastal areas of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts; in 
these storms 11,720 people lost their lives and bil- 
lions of dollars of damage was done.1*° The list, of 
course, only includes a fraction of the total hurri- 
canes that disrupt shipping and threaten the coast 
each year. An example of a less dramatic but still 
significant hazard is erosion, a major problem along 
one-quarter of the Nation’s seacoast. Earthquakes 
are not only a major hazard along much of the Paci- 
fic coast, but also are a potentially devastating, al- 
though generally unrecognized, hazard to densely 
populated areas of the Atlantic coast. While these 
hazards vary in scope and intensity, all of them must 
be recognized, and plans for the management, miti- 
gation, and recovery from the coastal hazards and 
their effects warrant a high priority. 
Although some steps have been taken by private 
parties, especially attempts to develop protective sys- 
tems, the primary responsibility for developing pol- 
icies and plans of action has fallen to Federal, State, 
and local governments. A high level of scientific 
expertise is required to develop an adequate under- 
standing of what causes natural hazards, when they 
may occur, what forces are involved, what damage 
IV-59 
