All coastal areas are facing a growing range of stresses and shocks, the scale of which now poses threats to the resilience of both human and environmental coastal systems. Responsible agencies are seeking better ways of managing the causes and consequences of the environmental change process in coastal zones. This volume discusses the basic principles underpinning a more integrated approach to coastal management and highlights the obstacles that may be met in practice in both developed and developing countries. Successful strategies will have to encompass all the elements of management, from planning and design through financing and implementation, as highlighted in this book.

This book presents an up-to-date overview of the characterization, risk assessment and remediation of mercury-contaminated sites. Many industrial activities, including the mining of gold, silver, and mercury itself, have caused mercury contamination of terrestrial and aquatic systems. Unlike other metals, which are generally not very volatile, mercury from contaminated sites can have a significant impact on remote ecosystems via the atmospheric pathway. Thus, mercury contamination is not only a local issue, but also has global dimensions.This book summarizes, for the first time, works from Europe, Russia and the American continent. Review chapters are supplemented by detailed, international case studies.

Due to its inherent characteristics, mercury contamination from gold mining is a major environmental problem compared to past mercury contamination from industrial point sources. The worsening of social-economical conditions and increasing gold prices in the late 1970s resulted in a new rush for gold by individual entrepreneurs for whom Hg amalgamation is a cheap and easily carried out operation. Even after the present-day mining areas are exhausted, the mercury left behind will remain part of the biochemical cycle of the tropical forest. This book reviews the current information on mercury from gold mining, its cycling in the environment and its long-term ecotoxicological impact. The book is illustrated with numerous diagrams and photographs.

For the first time a state-of-the-art of present metal pollution along the coastline of Latin America is provided. This collection of papers from a conference held in August 1986 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is designed to inform readers of recent advances in an important, interdisciplinary field. Primary focus is on: - Metal Surveys, Metals in Sediments, Metals in Biota, Metal Transport and Cycles, Metal Monitoring. A final chapter combines conclusion, outlook and recommendations of how to master the critical situation of metal concentrations in coastal environments of Latin America. This book fills a long-standing gap in the literature and will be of prime interest to researchers, students and professionals in geology, biology and chemistry.

All coastal areas are facing a growing range of stresses and shocks, the scale of which now poses threats to the resilience of both human and environmental coastal systems. Responsible agencies are seeking better ways of managing the causes and consequences of the environmental change process in coastal zones. This volume discusses the basic principles underpinning a more integrated approach to coastal management and highlights the obstacles that may be met in practice in both developed and developing countries. Successful strategies will have to encompass all the elements of management, from planning and design through financing and implementation, as highlighted in this book.