Population, tourism, land-use and non-renewable resources

Abstract

In April 1998, the above team was given the responsibility for the section concerning land-use and landscape. This was later widened to include population, tourism and non-renewable resources (quarrying and salt extraction). After the change in the national administration in late 1998, the new Ministry for the Environment confirmed its intention to carry on with this project. Under the heading “Population, Tourism, Land-Use and Non-Renewable Resources”, the following will be considered: population change, household sizes, migration, housing, the built environment, the historic environment, urban conservation areas, archaeology, scheduling, tourism, the coastal environment, land and sea use, geology, quarrying, landscape and seascape, environmental impact assessment and enforcement action. As the work progressed it became very obvious that it would not be possible to meet all the original objectives of the State of the Environment Report (as stated in Part 1) for a number of reasons, principally in view of a lack of information in a number of cases. Hence it was decided that in view of these difficulties and the short time frame within which the report had to be prepared, this part of the report would therefore focus on reviewing available information, assessing the present status and as far as possible identifying trends. In the absence of stated national environmental objectives it is difficult to make detailed recommendations to meet such objectives, therefore only general recommendations are made. The information provided here can be used both as a baseline account with which to compare future State of the Environment reports as well as a basis for formulating indices for assessing environmental quality and national environmental quality objectives.