Chapter 1: The Coastal Area
1.3 Use of the coastal area (1)
| European Coasts - An Introductory Survey Chapter 1: The Coastal Area 1.3 Use of the coastal area (1) |
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| Fig 26: Wide industrial area near the entrance of the harbour of Rotterdam. The basin in the foreground has been made to store contaminated silt dredged form the harbour basisn; Rotterdam,The Netherlands (AeroCamera) | Fig 27: Harbour for fishing boats, ferries, coasters and yachts, Scheveningen, The Netherlands (AeroCamera) | Fig 28: Water infiltration lakes near Scheveningen, The Netherlands (FlyingCamera) |
The coastal zone is often intensely occupied by human activities.
Economic and industrial use
The sea has always attracted people for its beauty and its economic advantages. Access to the sea near river mouths induced trade and other economic activities. Nowadays, many of the early harbours have been
developed into large cities surrounded by industrial areas (see Fig. 26 and Fig. 27).
Water infiltration
The enormous sand formations present in the coastal area provide a natural filter for tap water. This filtering
capacity can be used for the transformation of river water into fresh drinking-water. Artificial lakes have been
constructed in the Netherlands from which river water infiltrates the sand below the dunes (see Fig. 28).
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| This page is from the book "European Coasts", produced in the framework of the Erasmus project under EC contract ICP 92-G-2013 and placed on the Internet in the framework of the PIANC-MarCom initiative on Education. |