Coastal region/seas

Evidence has been found that the place of origin is submerged land to the north west of New Guinea. The major coconut areas lie between 20°N and 20° S of the equator. Although it is found beyond this region, 27° N and 27° S, cultivation has not been successful and the palm does not fruit. Many varieties are found in Melanesian region. It is most widely cultivated in the tropics India, Ceylon, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Sea Islands in the Pacific, East Africa, and Central and South Americas, up to 800 m above sea level, on humus-rich and porous soil or pure sand in coastal regions. 

Tables I to III provide a summary of some representative data for total arsenic concentrations in sediments, marine algae, and marine animals. There can be considerable variation in the arsenic levels in these samples, in contrast to the levels in seawater, which are reasonably uniform in the world s oceans at about 0.5-2 /ug/liter (9,10). For sediments, there is perhaps a tendency for arsenic concentrations to be lower in samples from coastal regions and estuaries compared with deep-sea sediments. Industrial discharges of arsenic-enriched effluents can, however, result in arsenic contamination of near-shore sediments...

Cement is a product which is quite homogeneous throughout the world. The existence of different prices is mainly justified by the importance of transportation costs. Whereas a tonne of cement is sold around 80 when it leaves a plant in France, it costs 10 to transport it by road over 100 km. The cost is much lower by sea transporting cement from a harbour in eastern Asia to Marseille is the same as from Marseille to Lyon. Such a characteristic must be taken into account when assessing the impact of an asymmetric climate policy on the cement industry whereas coastal regions could be severely impacted, inland ones seem to be relatively protected. 

The climate of the Black Sea and its coastal regions is defined by three principal factors, which depend on the latitude and topography of the area—the irradiance processes, the atmosphere circulation (both large-scale and local), and the character of the underlying surface. With regard to the type of the air masses that dominate throughout the year, the northern and the southern parts of the Black Sea may be referred to as the temperate and subtropical climatic zones, respectively [1]. 

Moisture content. The regime of the moisture content over the sea is determined by the processes of interaction between the air and the sea surface. In coastal regions, the diurnal variations in the moisture content are additionally affected by the breeze circulation. The daytime breeze supplies humid air from the sea to land areas. In contrast, the nighttime breeze delivers dry air to the sea surface. The flux of relatively dry air is also provided by foehns and boras. 

The map of cumulative CHL distribution over the Black Sea area measured by SeaWiFS in 1997-2005 (Fig. 1) illustrates that the lowest CHL ( 0.5 mg/m3) was observed in the central part of the sea, gradually increasing in the coastal regions. The highest CHL was observed over the northwestern shelf. 

On the basis of spatial distribution of three leading EOF modes we classify the Black Sea area into four regions (Fig. 2d) northwestern shelf (NW) southwestern coastal region (SW) eastern region (E), including the Batumi... 

A comparison between absolute CHL concentrations in different Black Sea regions illustrates that CHL is highest over the northwestern shelf and lowest in the central region (Fig. 3a). In the two coastal regions with narrow shelf, CHL gradually decreases from NW to SW to E, which coincides with the general pattern of cyclonic circulation in the Black Sea. 

The general environmental situation in the coastal regions of the Black Sea is very complicated and is close to critical [3]. The recent decades have witnessed growing pollution of waters with total phosphorus and nitrogen (Danube seaside), petroleum products (nearby Sebastopol and the Georgian coast), detergents and phenols (the southern coast of Crimea), phenols and pesticides (Odessa coast). Here the quality of coastal waters is determined not so much by the source of the pollutants and the width of the continental shelf, but by the nature and intensity of currents in the particular regions. 

The main methods used in desalination units are reverse osmosis and multi-effect distillation. The energy consumption of a desalination plant using the technology of reverse osmosis depends on its size, the contents of sea water and the desired quality of the produced water and usually ranges between 5-7 kWh/m3 when sea water is used. When well water in coastal regions is used for desalination the energy consumption is less than half of the above. The nominal capacity of small-size desalination units for rural housings is of the order of 400 W. 

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