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Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), integrated coastal management (ICM), or integrated coastal planning is a coastal management process for the management of the coast using an integrated approach, regarding all aspects of the coastal zone, including geographical and political boundaries, in an attempt to achieve sustainability. This concept was born in 1992 during the Earth Summit of Rio de Janeiro. The specifics regarding ICZM is set out in the proceedings of the summit within Agenda 21, Chapter 17.
ICZM provides a global common thought process and decision making framework which is flexible enough to find solutions tailored to the diverse range of world's as well as unique national, regional and local coastline and coastal environments and needs.
ICZM management must embrace a holistic viewpoint of the functions that makeup the complex and dynamic nature of interactions in the coastal environment. [1] Management framework must be applied to a defined geographical limit (often complicated) and should operate with a high level of integration. [2]
The Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is a key element for the sustainable development of coastal zones. However this recent notion may not be adapted to all cases. [3] The natural disasters Sumatra earthquake and the Indian Ocean tsunami have made a lot of impact on the coastal environment and also the stakeholder's perception on mitigation and management of coastal hazards. [4]
The dynamic processes that occur within the coastal zones produce diverse and productive ecosystems which have been of great importance historically for human populations. [5] Coastal margins equate to only 8% of the worlds surface area but provide 25% of global productivity. Stress on this environment comes with approximately 70% of the world's population being within a day's walk of the coast. [6] Two-thirds of the world's cities occur on the coast. [7]
Valuable resources such as fish and minerals are considered to be common property and are in high demand for coastal dwellers for subsistence use, recreation and economic development. [8] Through the perception of common property, these resources have been subjected to intensive and specific exploitation. For example; 90% of the world's fish harvest comes from within national exclusive economic zones, most of which are within the sight of shore. [6] This type of practice has led to a problem that has cumulative effects. The addition of other activities adds to the strain placed on this environment. As a whole, human activity in the coastal zone generally degrades the systems by taking unsustainable quantities of resources. The effects are further exacerbated with the input of pollutant wastes. This provides the need for management. Due to the complex nature of human activity in this zone a holistic approach is required to obtain a sustainable outcome.
For ICZM to be successful it must adhere to the principles that define sustainability and act upon them in ways that are integrated. An optimal balance between environmental protection and the development of economic and social sectors is paramount. [9] As part of the holistic approach ICZM applies, many aspects within a coastal zone are expected to be considered and accounted for. These include but are not limited to: the spatial, functional, legal, policy, knowledge, and participation dimensions. [10] Below are four identified goals of ICZM:
Failure to include these aspects and goals would lead to a form of unsustainable management, undermining the paradigms explicit to ICZM.
Public participation and stakeholder involvement is essential in ICZM processes, not only in terms of a democratic approach, but also from a technical–instrumental point of view, in order to reduce decisional conflicts (Ioppolo et al., 2013). [12]
Defining the coastal zone is of particular importance to the idea of ICZM. But the fuzziness of borders due to the dynamic nature of the coast makes it difficult to clearly define. Most simply the coast can be thought of as an area of interaction between the land and the ocean. Ketchum (1972) [13] defined the area as:
The band of dry land and adjacent ocean space (water and submerged land) in which terrestrial processes and land uses directly affect oceanic processes and uses, and vice versa.
Issues arise with the diversity of features present on the coast and the spatial scales of the interacting systems. Coasts being dynamic in nature are influenced differently all around the world. Influences such as river systems, may reach far inland increasing the complexity and scale of the zone. These issues make it difficult to clearly identify hinterlands and subscribe any subsequent management.
Whilst acknowledging a physical coastal zone, the inclusion of ecosystems, resources and human activity within the zone is important. It is the human activities that warrant management. These activities are responsible for disrupting the natural coastal systems. To add to the complexity of this zone, administrative boundaries use arbitrary lines that dissect the zone, often leading to fragmented management. This sectored approach focuses on specific activities such as land use and fisheries, often leading to adverse effects in another sector.
The concept behind the idea of ICZM is sustainability. For ICZM to succeed, it must be sustainable. Sustainability entails a continuous process of decision making, so there is never an end-state just a readjustment of the equilibrium between development and the protection of the environment. [14] The concept of Sustainability or sustainable development came to fruition in the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future. It stated sustainable development is “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. [15]
Highlighted are three main standpoints which summarise the idea of Sustainable development, they are:
To simplify these points, sustainability should acknowledge the right of humans to live a life that is healthy and productive. It should allow for equal distribution of benefits to all people and in doing so protect the environment through appropriate use. [14]
Sustainability is by no means a set of prescriptive actions, more accurately it is a way of thinking. Adapting this way of thinking paves the way for a longer-term view with a more holistic approach, something successful ICZM can achieve. [11]
The term ‘integration’ can be adopted for many different purposes, it is therefore quite important to define the term in the context of the management of the coastal zone to appreciate the intentions of ICZM. Integration within ICZM occurs in and between many different levels, 5 types of integration that occur within ICZM, [14] are explained below;
Integration among sectors: Within the coastal environment there are many sectors that operate. These human activities are largely economic activities such as tourism, fisheries, and port companies. A sense of co-operation between sectors is the main requirement for sector integration within ICZM. This comes from the realisation of a common goal focused around sustainability and the appreciation of one another within the area.
Integration between land and water elements of the coastal zone: This is the realisation of the physical environment being a whole. The coastal environment is a dynamic relationship between many processes all of which are interdependent. The link must be made between imposing a change on one system or feature and its inevitable ‘flow on’ effects.
Integration among levels of government: Between levels of governance, consistency and co-operation is needed throughout planning and policy making. ICZM is most effective where initiatives have common purpose at local, regional, and national levels. Common goals and actions increase efficiency and mitigate confusion.
Integration between nations: This sees ICZM as an important tool on a global scale. If goals and beliefs are common on a supranational scale, large scale problems could be mitigated or avoided.
Integration among disciplines: Throughout ICZM, knowledge should be accepted from all disciplines. All means of scientific, cultural, traditional, political and local expertise need to be accounted for. By including all these elements a truly holistic approach towards management can be achieved.
The term integration in a coastal management context has many horizontal and vertical aspects, which reflects the complexity of the task and it proves a challenge to implement.
Successful implementation is still a major challenge to the idea of ICZM .
Major constraints of ICZM are mostly institutional, rather than technological. [10] The ‘top-down’ approach of administrative decision making sees problematisation as a tool promoting ICZM through the idea of sustainability. [10] Community-based ‘bottom-up’ approaches can perceive problems and issues that are specific to a local area. The benefit of this is that the problems are real and acknowledged rather than searched for to fit an imposed strategy or policy. Public consultation and involvement is very important for current ‘top-down’ approaches, as it can incorporate this ‘bottom-up’ idea into the policies made. Prescriptive ‘top-down’ methods have not able to effectively address problems of resource utilization in poor coastal communities as perceptions of the coastal zone differ with regard to developed and developing countries. [10] This leads on to another constraint to ICZM, the idea of common property.
The coastal environment has huge historical and cultural connections with human activity. Its wealth of resources have provided for millennia, with regard to ICZM how does management become legally binding if the dominant perception of the coast is of a common area available to all? And should it? [6] Enforcing restrictions or change to activities within the coastal zone can be difficult as these resources are often very important to people's livelihoods. The idea of the coast being common property fouls ‘top-down’ approaches. The idea of common property itself is not all that clean, This perception can lead to cumulative exploitation of resources – the very problem this management seeks to extinguish.
The European Parliament and the European Council "adopted in 2002 a Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management which defines the principles sound coastal planning and management. These include the need to base planning on sound and shared knowledge, the need to take a long-term and cross-sector perspective, to pro-actively involve stakeholders and the need to take into account both the terrestrial and the marine components of the coastal zone". [16]
Preparation of comprehensive management plans for optimum utilization of existent sources and potentials in all developed and developing countries is one of the appropriate approaches for constant and permanent utilization of natural, human and financial sources. The versatility of natural sources in coastal areas has made private and governmental users and investors to participate in this section to gain the utmost profits. Therefore, the necessity of preparation and implementation of management plans for perpetual utilization of existent sources in coastal areas has become inevitable. Iran, possessing some 6000 km of coastline in north and south, owns abundant economic capacities in coastal zones and regarding the versatility of nature and coast operators and management of coastal activities and operations, necessity of attention to Integrated Coastal Zone Management becomes more significant. Such necessity has gained its legal support through ratification of arrangements no. 40 from transportation chapter of third and article no. 63 of fourth economic, social and cultural economic schedule and its executive regulations. The General Director of coasts and ports engineering of Ports and Maritime Organization was detailed to take the studies of ICZM into consideration. The first phase of these studies began in spring 2003 and was fulfilled in autumn 2006. The outcome of this phase was compilation of following reports accomplished by several national and international skilled consultants: 1- Project Methodology 2- Scrutinized scope of services related to studies 3- Investigation of studies' needs and project preparation and performance 4- Study, definition and determination of Iranian coastal zones boundaries 6- Investigation of International concepts, methods and experiences about Integrated Coastal Zone Management 7- Study and investigation of different features of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Iran 8- Preparation and designation of geographic database 9- Purchasing and preparing basic data The second phase of studies started up in autumn 2005 and since then this phase has been fully accomplished and presented, In which six competent Iranian consultants with some cooperation of international consultants are responsible for preparing the eleven results of second part of the studies. [17]
At the Conference of the Plenipotentiaries on the ICZM Protocol that took place on 20–21 January 2008 in Madrid, the ICZM Protocol was signed. Under the presidency of the Minister of Environment of Spain, H.E. Ms. Cristina Narbona Ruiz, fourteen Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention signed the Protocol. These are the following: Algeria, Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Slovenia, Spain, Syria and Tunisia. All other Parties announced to do so in the very near future. This is the 7th Protocol in the framework of the Barcelona Convention, and the decision to approve the draft text and recommendation to the Conference of the Plenipotentiaries to sign it was taken at the 15th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties during their meeting in Almeria, on 15–18 January 2008. All the parties are convinced that this Protocol is a crucial milestone in the history of the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP), the first-ever Regional Seas Programme under UNEP's umbrella. It will allow the countries to better manage their coastal zones, as well as to deal with the emerging coastal environmental challenges, such as the climate change.
The ICZM Protocol is a unique legal instrument in the entire international community and the Mediterranean countries are proud of this fact. They are willing to share these experiences with other coastal countries of the world. The signing of the Protocol came after six years of dedicated work of all the Parties. Syria entered history for being the sixth, and "enter-into-force", country for the ICZM Protocol! Namely, the President of the Syrian Arab Republic issued a Legislative Decree No. 85 dated 31 September 2010 for the ratification of the ICZM Protocol. With this 6th ratification, the ICZM Protocol entered into force one month later provided that Syria deposits the instrument of ratification to the depositary country, i.e. Spain. In September 2012, Croatia and Morocco ratified the Protocol, which brought the number of ratifications to 9 (Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania, Spain, France, European Union, Syria, Croatia, Morocco).
The Action Plan for the implementation of the ICZM Protocol 2012-2019 was adopted on the occasion of the CoP 17, held in Paris from 8 to 10 February 2012. The core purposes and objectives of this Action Plan are to implement the Protocol based on country-based planning and regional co-ordination, namely: 1. Support the effective implementation of the ICZM Protocol at regional, national and local levels including through a Common Regional Framework for ICZM; 2. Strengthen the capacities of Contracting Parties to implement the Protocol and use in an effective manner ICZM policies, instruments, tools and processes; and 3. Promote the ICZM Protocol and its implementation within the region, and promote it globally by developing synergies with relevant Conventions and Agreements.
A road-map for the implementation of the ICZM Process, prepared by Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre (PAP/RAC), is available on the Coastal Wiki platform of the PEGASO and ENCORA projects: ICZM Process.
On May 8, 2014 the Israeli Government ratified the ICZM Protocol. This Resolution (#1588) was made in accordance with Article 19(b) of the Government Rules of Procedure. The ICZM Protocol ratification by Israel brings the number of ratifications to 10.
New Zealand is quite unique as it uses sustainable management within legislation, with a high level of importance placed on to the coastal environment. [5] The Resource Management Act (RMA) (1991) promoted sustainable development and mandated the preparation of a New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS), a national framework for coastal planning. It is the only national policy statement that was mandatory. [18] All subsequent planning must not be inconsistent with the NZCPS, making it a very important document. [5] Regional authorities are required to produce Regional coastal policy plans under the RMA (1991) but strangely enough, they only need to include the marine environment seaward of the mean high water mark. But many regional councils have chosen to integrate the ‘dry’ landward area within their plans, breaking down the artificial barriers. [5] This attempt at ICZM is still in its early days running into many legislative hurdles and is yet to achieve a fully ecosystems-based approach. But as part of ICZM, evaluation and adoption of changes is important and ongoing changes to the NZCPS in the form of reviews is currently happening. [18] This will provide an excellent stepping stone for future initiatives and the development of a fully integrated form of coastal management.
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) was established by resolution 2.31 adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO. It first met in Paris at Unesco Headquarters from 19 to 27 October 1961. Initially, 40 States became members of the commission. The IOC assists governments to address their individual and collective ocean and coastal management needs, through the sharing of knowledge, information and technology as well as through the co-ordination of programs and building capacity in ocean and coastal research, observations and services.
Environmental resource management is the management of the interaction and impact of human societies on the environment. It is not, as the phrase might suggest, the management of the environment itself. Environmental resources management aims to ensure that ecosystem services are protected and maintained for future human generations, and also maintain ecosystem integrity through considering ethical, economic, and scientific (ecological) variables. Environmental resource management tries to identify factors affected by conflicts that rise between meeting needs and protecting resources. It is thus linked to environmental protection, sustainability, integrated landscape management, natural resource management, fisheries management, forest management, and wildlife management, and others.
Sustainable urban infrastructure expands on the concept of urban infrastructure by adding the sustainability element with the expectation of improved and more resilient urban development. In the construction and physical and organizational structures that enable cities to function, sustainability also aims to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the capabilities of the future generations.
Environmental planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out land development with the consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic framework to achieve sustainable outcomes. A major goal of environmental planning is to create sustainable communities, which aim to conserve and protect undeveloped land.
A sustainable habitat is an ecosystem that produces food and shelter for people and other organisms, without resource depletion and in such a way that no external waste is produced. Thus the habitat can continue into the future tie without external infusions of resources. Such a sustainable habitat may evolve naturally or be produced under the influence of man. A sustainable habitat that is created and designed by human intelligence will mimic nature, if it is to be successful. Everything within it is connected to a complex array of organisms, physical resources, and functions. Organisms from many different biomes can be brought together to fulfill various ecological niches.
DPSIR is a causal framework used to describe the interactions between society and the environment. It seeks to analyze and assess environmental problems by bringing together various scientific disciplines, environmental managers, and stakeholders, and solve them by incorporating sustainable development. First, the indicators are categorized into "drivers" which put "pressures" in the "state" of the system, which in turn results in certain "impacts" that will lead to various "responses" to maintain or recover the system under consideration. It is followed by the organization of available data, and suggestion of procedures to collect missing data for future analysis. Since its formulation in the late 1990s, it has been widely adopted by international organizations for ecosystem-based study in various fields like biodiversity, soil erosion, and groundwater depletion and contamination. In recent times, the framework has been used in combination with other analytical methods and models, to compensate for its shortcomings. It is employed to evaluate environmental changes in ecosystems, identify the social and economic pressures on a system, predict potential challenges and improve management practices. The flexibility and general applicability of the framework make it a resilient tool that can be applied in social, economic, and institutional domains as well.
The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative is a bipartisan, collaborative group in the United States that aims to "accelerate the pace of change that results in meaningful ocean policy reform." The Joint Initiative was established by the members of two major U.S.-based oceans commissions: the Pew Oceans Commission and the United States Commission on Ocean Policy. It was originally co-chaired by former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James D. Watkins, chairs of the Pew and U.S. Ocean Commissions, respectively. Currently, the Joint Initiative is led by a Leadership Council, which is co-chaired by Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA Administrator under President George W. Bush and former governor of New Jersey, and Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton and Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush.
Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a process that brings together multiple users of the ocean – including energy, industry, government, conservation and recreation – to make informed and coordinated decisions about how to use marine resources sustainably. MSP generally uses maps to create a more comprehensive picture of a marine area – identifying where and how an ocean area is being used and what natural resources and habitat exist. It is similar to land-use planning, but for marine waters.
Ecosystem-based management is an environmental management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including humans, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation. It can be applied to studies in the terrestrial and marine environments with challenges being attributed to both. In the marine realm, they are highly challenging to quantify due to highly migratory species as well as rapidly changing environmental and anthropogenic factors that can alter the habitat rather quickly. To be able to manage fisheries efficiently and effectively it has become increasingly more pertinent to understand not only the biological aspects of the species being studied, but also the environmental variables they are experiencing. Population abundance and structure, life history traits, competition with other species, where the stock is in the local food web, tidal fluctuations, salinity patterns and anthropogenic influences are among the variables that must be taken into account to fully understand the implementation of a "ecosystem-based management" approach. Interest in ecosystem-based management in the marine realm has developed more recently, in response to increasing recognition of the declining state of fisheries and ocean ecosystems. However, due to a lack of a clear definition and the diversity involved with the environment, the implementation has been lagging.
Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) is a regional partnership programme implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). The project, started in 1994, was originally known as Prevention and Management of Marine Pollution in the East Asian Seas (SDS-SEA).
Environmental governance (EG) consist of a system of laws, norms, rules, policies and practices that dictate how the board members of an environment related regulatory body should manage and oversee the affairs of any environment related regulatory body which is responsible for ensuring sustainability and manage all human activities—political, social and economic. Environmental governance includes government, business and civil society, and emphasizes whole system management. To capture this diverse range of elements, environmental governance often employs alternative systems of governance, for example watershed-based management.
The Regional Forum on Environment and Health in Southeast and East Asian Countries is a global framework for action provided by Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development; the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development; the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations and the recommendations of the fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific on enhancing the environmental sustainability of economic growth. The second Ministerial Regional Forum was held 14–16 July 2010 in Jeju Province, South Korea. The forum is held every three years; the first was in Bangkok in August 2007.
Sustainable land management (SLM) refers to practices and technologies that aim to integrate the management of land, water, and other environmental resources to meet human needs while ensuring long-term sustainability, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and livelihoods. The term is used, for example, in regional planning and soil or environmental protection, as well as in property and estate management.
EUCC – The Coastal Union Germany, EUCC-Germany for short, is a nonprofit organization that supports the promotion of sustainable development of coasts and seas in national and international projects. EUCC-Germany provides learning modules and databases on the Internet, publishes information and journals and is involved in education for sustainable development (ESD) programs. As the German representative of the International Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC), the largest European non-governmental organization (NGO) in the coastal area, EUCC-Germany aims to strengthen German activities within the field of Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) by bridging the gap between coastal science and practice.
Ocean governance is the conduct of the policy, actions and affairs regarding the world's oceans. Within governance, it incorporates the influence of non-state actors, i.e. stakeholders, NGOs and so forth, therefore the state is not the only acting power in policy making. However, ocean governance is complex because much of the ocean is a commons that is not ‘owned’ by any single person or nation/state. There is a belief more strongly in the US than other countries that the “invisible hand” is the best method to determine ocean governance factors. These include factors such as what resources we consume, what price we should pay for them, and how we should use them. The underlying reasoning behind this is the market has to have the desire in order to promote environmental protection, however this is rarely the case. This term is referred to as a market failure. Market failures and government failures are the leading causes of ocean governance complications. As a result, humankind has tended to overexploit marine resources, by treating them as shared resources while not taking equal and collective responsibilities in caring for them.
Coastal hazards are physical phenomena that expose a coastal area to the risk of property damage, loss of life, and environmental degradation. Rapid-onset hazards last minutes to several days and encompass significant cyclones accompanied by high winds, waves, and surges or tsunamis created by submarine earthquakes and landslides. Slow-onset hazards, such as erosion and gradual inundation, develop incrementally over extended periods.
Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC) is a nonprofit organization with a membership of around 500 institutions, NGOs and experts, in 40 countries. Its network at large involves about 2500 professionals involved in coastal and marine management issues. Founded in 1989 with the aim of promoting coastal management by bridging the gap between scientists, environmentalists, site managers, planners and policy makers, it has grown into the largest network of coastal practitioners and experts in Europe, with 13 National Branches, an International Secretariat in Leiden, and offices in Barcelona (Spain), Biarritz (France), Warnemünde (Germany), Szczecin (Poland), Klaipeda (Lithuania) and Sliema (Malta). EUCC's working area is Europe and its neighbouring regions, especially the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
The Benguela Current Commission, or BCC, is a multi-sectoral inter-governmental, initiative of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. It promotes the sustainable management and protection of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem, or BCLME. The BCC was established in January 2007 through the signing of an Interim Agreement between the governments of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Then, on 18 March 2013, the three governments signed the Benguela Current Convention, an environmental treaty that entrenches the Benguela Current Commission as a permanent inter-governmental organization.
Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) is a regional professional, non-governmental, non-profit, membership organization, registered in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The organization is dedicated to promoting the educational, scientific and technological development of all aspects of marine sciences throughout the region of Western Indian Ocean, with a view toward sustaining the use and conservation of its marine resources. The association has about 1000 individual members as well as about 50 institutional members from within and outside the region.
Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Climate change and climate change education are global challenges that can be anchored in the curriculum in order to provide local learning and widen up mindset shits on how climate change can be mitigated. In such as case CCE is more than climate change literacy but understanding ways of dealing with climate