Coastal Water Bodies

There is a need of books addressing the links between science and the real world with a sound scientific baseline. Coastal Water Bodies targets researchers of various disciplines, for an integrated sustainable management of water bodies. The main topic of this book is not the ecology according to its common acceptation but rather the places and people involved the former, being coastal zones of the Mediterranean rich in ecological value; the latter, being different social subjects. Local people survive thanks to these environmental resources, whereas others make use of them, but are alien to the place.§§Integration, the joint consideration of different aspects of water uses and values, even conflictive, is useful to enhance people benefits, but this requires new ways of understanding and managing conflicts around water use. Sustainability of the ecological and socioeconomic environments does not require a no-conflict, consensual quiet scenario (or even is incompatible with it), but rather a scenario in which conflicts exist but are properly managed in a non-destructive manner. This reasonable principle is inevitably abstract, whereas reality is manifold and concrete.