Land-Sea Interactions: A Spatial Planning Perspective

Coastal areas are the most populated areas on the planet and are the most attractive areas due to the richness of the biodiversity, natural resources, and trading reasons. Coastal cities are enlarging their boundaries fast by reclaiming land to place new growing economic sectors such as tourism, oil and gas, aquaculture, and fishery. These processes will put an extra strain on the interactions between land and sea. A crucial initiative regarding Land-Sea Interactions comes from the European Union through Directive 2014/89/EU. The directive pays special attention to the discourse surrounding Land-Sea Interactions. This study aims to analyze the existing research on Land-Sea Interactions to develop a base knowledge to determine elements and interactions with a spatial planning perspective. The research is based on a double literature review, a systematic literature review based on an open-source database, and a bibliographic search based on a key Land-Sea Interactions paper. The results identify economic sectors, natural elements, and their functions in the discourse of Land-Sea Interaction. Furthermore, this study identifies shared features and terminologies to define Land-Sea Interactions clearly. The main conclusion is that Land-Sea Interactions are human-induced and, in most cases, happen from land to sea, not vice versa. The other crucial conclusion is that specific types of natural elements can decrease the negative impact that those interactions can have either on the environment or among other human activities.