Megacity development: managing impacts on marine environments

The development of coastal cities in the Asia and Pacific region has strongly impacted marine and coastal environments, in particular degrading their health and modifying and destroying marine and coastal ecosystems. The information in this paper is based on data on regional land-based pollution to the marine environment obtained from a Regional Review and Regional Program of Actions for the global plan of action (GPA) for land-based activities that pollute marine environments. Some reference is made to the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis for the South China sea, prepared under the Global Environment Facility Block B support. The paper focuses on the existing problems of land-based pollution from coastal cities, the causes of these problems, and the paths of pollutants arriving in marine and coastal environments. It also describes the impacts of pollution on marine and coastal environments. Solutions to the problems are suggested and some introduction to the activities proposed by UNEP are also presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.