1. Introduction
Coastal regions across the world are subjected to numerous and
unrelenting threats both natural and anthropogenic which are
projected to intensify in the near future (Nicholls et al., 2007). The
link between the sea and the land is kept alive by the river systems
that drain into these coastal reaches bringing in nutrients, silt and
sediments from the mountain catchments and maintaining the
delicate balance of the estuarine ecosystems and aquifers through
fresh water flows. The era of intense development of these river
basins centred on expansion of irrigation facilities and water
sharing between the upper riparian catchments typically excluded
the coastal regions, ultimately resulting in reduced river flows,
concentrated pollution loads, accelerated erosion and highly
salinised water sources of the coasts. The coast as an integral
element and tail-end socio-ecosystem of a river basin is not
adequately incorporated even in the new era of source to sink in-tegrated management of river basins oriented towards sustainable
development. To a large extent, the ambiguities and difficulties in
the delineation of the coastal zone and its boundaries is observed to
contribute to the integration issues (Sas et al., 2010). The sustain-able management of the coastal region, its resources and the
stakeholder rights of its people is therefore either largely ignored or
treated in isolation from its basin (Gowing et al., 2006)