Keeping nature's forces in mind can help you avoid this. 



Coping with coastal environments 



OK. So you've scraped and saved and finally you've got the money 

 to buy that second home, the one you always wanted down at the 

 beach. 



You rush out to buy a house with the right number of bedrooms, 

 a large kitchen and all the other interior features your family wants 

 and can afford. 



But what about outside? Sure you look at the garage and the 

 driveway and you know the exact dimensions of your lot. 



But what about the natural forces huffing and puffing at your 

 door? Sometimes developers develop and buyers buy without really 

 considering how nature is acting on a particular spot. By knowing 

 something about natural forces — like tides, winds and plants — which 

 daily shape coastal lands, you might be able to avoid the heartache 

 of seeing nature cash in on your investment. 



Right now a UNC Sea Grant team is putting together a handbook 

 that should help you understand and work in harmony with these 

 natural forces. 



This is how the handbook might help you. 



Say your land had a dune in its southeastern corner. You want to 

 build on your land, but you've heard that dunes move. From the 

 handbook, you could learn what forces are acting on dunes, the 

 direction they normally migrate and how fast they move. Answers 

 to these questions should help you determine if your development 

 plans conflict with nature's forces. The book will also give you 

 information to help you live with a marsh, an estuary, inlets and 

 other coastal features. 



Another section will explore the impact of making physical 

 changes in different types of coastal environments. You could learn, 

 for instance, what happens when seawalls are built in front of dunes 

 or what effects filling a marsh may have. 



Along with this kind of information, the handbook will describe 

 policies which local governments could use to guide where develop- 

 ment occurs. Policies included in the book will be based on the unique 

 set of natural forces acting and interacting on particular types of 

 environments or '^habitats." 



The handbook, which doesn't have a name yet, is expected out next 

 summer. It draws on the talents of marine scientists who have re- 

 searched the natural forces of the coastal environment and lawyers 

 and planners who have expertise in policy areas. David Brower of 

 UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for Urban and Regional Studies is leading 

 the project. 



The University of North Carolina Sea Grant Program Newsletter is pub- 

 lished monthly by the University of North Carolina Sea Grant Program, 1235 

 Burlington Laboratories, Yarbrough Drive, North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, N.C. 27607. Vol. 2, No. 12. December, 1975. Dr. B. J. Copeland, director. 

 Dixie Berg, editor. Second-class postage paid at Raleigh, N.C. 27611. 



are useful 

 planning tool 



From the ground, it's tough to 

 see the forest for the trees. But 

 from the air, you can see the 

 forest — and much more. Yo\i can 

 trace rivers, see where large 

 numbers of trees have been cut, 

 where houses are built and what 

 borders on the forest's edge. 



By teaming up camera with 

 airplane, you can capture all 

 kinds of information about the 

 forest in a mere fraction of a 

 second. Besides giving you a 

 quick picture of what's going on 

 in the forest, air photos taken 

 today and compared with next 

 year's tell you in a glance how 

 things are changing. 



Developers and planners often 

 need the kind of overview aerial 

 photographs provide. Many are 

 already finding them a useful 

 planning tool. 



To help North Carolina's 

 coastal county planners and 

 developers make better use of 

 aerial photos, UNC Sea Grant 

 advisory services agent Simon 

 Baker is compiling a directory of 

 existing aerial photographs cov- 

 ering 44 eastern North Caro- 

 lina counties. The directory, 

 which he expects out by spring, 

 will include a section on how to 

 use aerial photography in land- 

 use planning and will explain 

 procedures for ordering the 

 imagery, much of which dates 

 back many years, he said. 



Baker himself is using a set of 

 aerial photographs taken in 1974 

 by the N. C. Department of 

 Transportation in a study of 

 land-use on the Outer Banks. 

 Baker's analysis of the 1974 

 photos should provide a handy 

 base for detecting trends in uses 

 of the barrier islands. 



According to the Sea Grant 

 advisory agent, aerial photos 

 from the past allow us to see how 

 lands have been used and how 

 they came to be used as they are 

 today. Such information is useful 

 in planning for the future, he 

 said. 



