Anfeh costal landscape: preservation, management and landscape planning strategies

Abstract

Coasts are among the most complex, vulnerable and sensitive of all natural ecosystems, and their management presents various problems and difficulties especially in our era of climate change in which coastal cities and populations face a range of serious threats (including rising sea levels). The singularity of these areas necessitates an equally singular handling of the issues of their urban development and management (Beriatos, Papageorgiou, 2010). In Lebanon the severe anthropogenic pressure on the coast is rapidly changing its landscape character shaping an elongated urban development that spread for 220 km from north to south. The paper focuses on the northern Lebanese coast where we believe opportunities for sustainable development resides in the natural, cultural and archeological assets. It reports the findings of the study that was performed in this village in 2016-2017 as part of a third-year cultural landscape design studio at the department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management, American University of Beirut.