• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.481-496
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• 2009

Every coastal area exhibits its own unique landscape owing to the combination of the natural and cultural processes. Coastal barrier islands well show the cultural aspects of American coastal landscapes. Some 47% of barrier island area was occupied by urban and built-up area in New Jersey, while some 5% in Georgia. Tourism-related development is back to in the mid 19C. in N.J. due to the closeness to heavily populated areas such as New York and Philadelphia. Developments without proper understanding the nature of coastal processes caused New Jerseyization, the destruction of the beauty or naturalness. It was mainly due to the lack of growth-control policies and the foresight for the future coast in the processes of legislation. North Carolina's islands experienced an increase of 269% in urbanized acreage between 1956 and 1976. However, N.C. exercised her wisdom to recover the naturalness of the coastal environs: all engineering structures are banned on the beaches. Nine out of 13 barrier islands in Georgia exist in the wilderness condition owing to her unique history. The remaining islands still experienced the least development. After the Civil War most of Georgian islands were owned by rich families and maintained as wilderness. In the 1970s most of the uninhabited islands were sold or donated to research institutes or governmental agencies.