Palginõmm, V., Ratas, U. and Kont, A., 2007. Increasing human impact on coastal areas of Estonia in recent decades. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 114 – 119. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208
The costal zone is a crucial environment that is experiencing pressure from a wide variety of different agents and interests. One key problem in recent decades has been a rapid increase in the number of holiday houses built as close as possible to the seashore. As in the Nordic countries, the historical roots of land use on the Estonian coast go back to ancient society. The original coastal settlements were usually concentrated around naturally suitable harbours. People used the pastures and fishing huts during the summer season. This was an essential part of making an adequate living and was not associated with recreation. The first expansion of villa settlements close to towns took place in the 19th century at Estonia's famous summer resort, Pärnu. Unlike in the Nordic countries where major coastal settlement expansion took place after WWII, almost the entire coast of Estonia was proclaimed the Soviet border zone where people were not allowed to live. Nearly 3,800 km of shoreline, except the coastal cities and a few summer resorts were under the control of Soviet military forces. Revival of coastal land use and a rapid increase of coastal settlements have occurred over the last 10-15 years. This paper focusses on population changes on the coast of Saaremaa Island associated with increasing pressure and conflicts of interests. We also examine the advantages and disadvantages of existing legislation regulating land use within the Estonian coastal zone. The work is based on GIS techniques.
