Les côtes atlantiques des Etats-Unis à l'épreuve du Coastal Zone Management Act

The paper shows the American experience of coastal mangement initiated in 1972 by the Coastal Zone Management Act; it is also a comparison with the french practice in a political framework quite different as the first regulations took place in the same time in France and in the USA. The CZMA is, in the USA, a «coproduction process» involving coastal states, environmental and development groups together with congressional committees and federal coastal offices. Using an example, the management of coastal risks, the paper shows how coastal states gradually have decided to use soft methods against marine erosion as, in the same time, they organized «setbacks» in coastal development planning, as a response to the discussion of erosion problems all along the coastal US framework.