Effects of tourist population pressure on pollution of coastal seas

Coastal tourism continues to be an important industry for many countries. Improper planning, however, frequently results in the deterioration of the coastal waters in newly opened tourist resorts. Avoidance of this situation can be achieved by predetermining the bearing capacity of the site, which is very costly and time consuming. After an extensive study, the author previously had developed an equation by which the effects of the increase in tourist population on coastal water quality can be determined. The microbial pollution, which is indicated by coliform concentration, is a function of human population, intensity of light, turbidity, temperature of seawater, human population density, and the coastal characteristics coefficients. By using the equation, the bering capacity of a site can be determined easily. The purpose of the present study is the verification of the equation. To achieve this, a study was conducted at another tourist resourt, Cesme, where 1764 observations were made. The results, regardless of the small differences in the coefficients obtained, indicate that the proposed method can be used to determine the bearing capacity of the system as well as the extent of microbial pollution. This accelerates and simplifies the prediction and the prevention of possible negative effects that can be caused by opening coastal areas to tourism.