Routledge Handbook of Ocean Resources and Management

This comprehensive handbook provides a global overview of ocean resources and management by focusing on critical issues relating to human development and the marine environment, their interrelationships as expressed through the uses of the sea as a resource, and the regional expression of these themes. The underlying approach is geographical, with prominence given to the biosphere, political arrangements and regional patterns – all considered to be especially crucial to the human understanding required for the use and management of the world's oceans.

Part one addresses key themes in our knowledge of relationships between people and the sea on a global scale, including economic and political issues, and understanding and managing marine environments. Part two provides a systematic review of the uses of the sea, grouped into food, ocean space, materials and energy, and the sea as an environmental resource. Part three on the geography of the sea considers management strategies especially related to the state system, and regional management developments in both core economic regions and the developing periphery. The primary themes within each chapter are governance (including institutional and legal bases); policy – sets of ideas governing management; and management, both technical and general.

Hance D. Smith was a Reader in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University until 2011. He is Editor of Marine Policy, the leading academic journal of ocean affairs. His academic interests include marine geography, marine resource and environmental management and marine policy.

Juan Luis Suarez de Vivero is a Professor in the Department of Human Geography, University of Seville, Spain. His special interests are social science aspects of maritime policy, ocean governance and integrated coastal zone management.

Tundi S. Agardy is Executive Director of Sound Seas, a US-based group focused on marine protected areas, ecosystem-based management, and coastal planning. She is author of "Ocean Zoning" (Earthscan, 2010).