The socio-economic significance of the Turkish coastal environment for sustainable development

The objective of this study was to estimate the contribution from the coastal resources in the coastal region to the national economy for sustainable development. There was no separate data base for the coastal zone so that the contribution from the coastal resources in the coastal region to the national economy was not evaluated. In estimating the significance of Turkish coastal cities, indirect methods and the geographical information system were used. In conclusion, it was found that 61.09 % of the total national gross domestic product and 50.75 % of the national agricultural, 90.98 % of the national fisheries, 68.19 % of the national tourism and 71.82 % of the national industrial gross domestic product came from the coastal zone. It was determined that while coastal cities of Turkey had 28.23 % of the national surface area, the coastal district had 12.96 %; in other words, 21.5 million (28.04 %) of the national population lived in 101.5 thousand km(2) (12.96 %) of the national surface area. Approximately 44% of the national gross domestic product comes from the top ten coastal cities. According to the contribution ratio to the national economy of each coastal city, these low-lying coastal cities have about $16 billion risk value. An analysis showed that the coastal zone is very important for the national economy of Turkey and also the pressure on the coastal zone is very high. At a time of increasing pressures on coastal resources of Turkey, the decision-makers need the most up-to-date information on the full range of values these resources provide in order to make decisions that best reflect the public interest.