1 Measuring, monitoring and managing sustainability in Indian coastal areas: the socioeconomic dimension*

Some of the most profound changes in the littoral have arisen from direct decisions by man concerning land use, and these have affected both the quality of environmental resources, such as soils and water and the sustainability of coastal ecosystems. Land use decisions in coastal areas are based on opportunities and constraints affected by both biophysical and socio-economic drivers, being land use and land use changes one of the main issues integrating the large debate on sustainable development. The need to integrate natural and social sciences in order to identify questions and eventually find solutions, concerning measuring, monitoring and managing the development of coastal areas has been the main purpose of the interdisciplinary research project held in India: “Meas-uring, monitoring and managing sustainability: the coastal dimension”. The research was conducted in accordance with the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework and the main drivers analysed were tourism, intensive agriculture/aquaculture and industry. 1