Coastal zone management with relation to low investment solutions

Coastal zone management with relation to low investment solutions

Verhagen, H.J.
Yap, J.T.L.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Hydraulic Engineering

1992-03-02

Copying solutions from the western, industrial countries for application in developing countries is in general not the best solution for solving the problems of developing countries. The main reason for that is that the available resources in the developing world are different from the resources in western countries. In the industrialised countries there is a strong tendency to solve problems in such a way that the amount of required labour decreases. Thus, a capital-intensive solution is searched for. The reason for this is the very costly social system and the high standard of living. This causes a large deference between the hourly income and the hourly costs of labour, which is much less in developing countries. On the other hand it is difficult and expensive to import industrial products from abroad. Also it is difficult to have sufficient financial resources available. For those countries it is more economic and more attractive to search for solutions which require hardly any investments, but are relatively labour-intensive. These solutions generally require often more maintenance. However, increased maintenance costs may even be advisable, provided initial investment is very low. The total cost of the solution, i.e. investment plus maintenance, can be spread over a longer period without financial indebtedness. The above described philosophy is valid in many sectors of society, but is especially true in the coastal zone. Works in the coastal zone are generally of a large scale, requiring a long planning and very often designed using capital intensive methods.

optimal cost
developing countries
low cost solutions
low investment solutions

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:00df3f55-c3d1-4f18-bc84-609613fdf922

PIANC - ITS Surabaya

PIANC-PCDC 2nd seminar on ports and inland waterways, 1992 Surabaya, March

Institutional Repository

conference paper

©1992 H.J. Verhagen; J.T.L. Yap