9529445 Takahashi The series of Coastal Ocean Space Utilization (COSU) symposia sponsored by the National Science Foundation and a significant number of partners has stimulated considerable interest, cooperation, and agreement on balanced utilization and management of our coastal region in harmony with the environment. The success of these gatherings can be attributed to the quality of the conferees and the philosophical format. The COSU series has provided an excellent international forum to review and discuss the latest technological advances, concepts, and research needs on a variety of interdisciplinary topics. Inasmuch as more than 50 percent of the world's population and industrial and research activity is located within 100 kilometers of the coast, this is a very important region on which to focus in applying advances in marine science and technology to achieve sustainable development of the coastal infrastructure. These symposia has been held in specific coastal regions of the world to obtain different perspectives and thus stimulate the cross-pollination of ideas for solving the many environmental and developmental problems facing these areas. These gatherings have provided new insights and innovative concepts to deal with the interdisciplinary problems of the expanding coastal infrastructure, which are driven by the steadily increasing coastal population with its attendant environmental, social, and economic impacts. Concepts frequently introduced pertain to such topics as artificial islands, floating cities, environmentally friendly coastal reclamation, new ocean energy extraction techniques, off- shore ranching, artificial upwelling, autonomous vehicles, and remote sensing systems, to mention a few. Various international cooperative projects have already resulted. There is great emphasis on sustainable coastal development, i.e., development in harmony with the marine environment. This has introduced new technologies, methods, and techni ques that have greatly influenced the design of those systems and projects comprising the coastal infrastructure. ***
