Integrated coastal zone management

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), also known as Integrated Coastal Management (ICM), or Integrated Coastal Planning is a coastal management process that uses an integrated approach to manage all aspects of the coastal zone, including geographical and political boundaries, in an attempt to achieve sustainability. This notion was conceptualized in 1992 during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The specifics regarding ICZM are outlined in the proceedings of the summit within Agenda 21, Chapter 17.
Framework
Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) provides a globally recognized decision-making framework that is flexible enough to develop solutions tailored to the unique environmental needs of national, regional, and local coastlines. ICZM management must adopt a holistic approach, recognizing the complex and dynamic interactions within the coastal environment. The management framework should be applied to a clearly defined geographical area, which may be complex, and must operate with a high level of integration.
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. The Sumatra earthquake and the Indian Ocean tsunami had a significant impact on the coastal environment and stakeholders' perceptions of mitigation and management of coastal hazards.
The dynamic processes that occur within the coastal zones produce diverse and productive ecosystems which have been of great importance historically for human populations. Coastal margins equate to only 8% of the world's surface area but provide 25% of global productivity. Stress on this environment is caused by the fact that approximately 70% of the world's population lives within a day's walk of the coast. Moreover, two-thirds of the world's cities are located on the coast.
Valuable resources such as fish and minerals are considered common property and are in high demand among coastal dwellers for subsistence, recreation, and economic development. 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. 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. Human activity in coastal zones often contributes to the degradation of these ecosystems through the extraction of unsustainable quantities of resources. This impact is compounded by the introduction of pollutant waste, further stressing the environment. These challenges underscore the importance of effective management strategies. Given the complexity of human interactions within coastal areas, a holistic approach is considered essential for achieving sustainable outcomes.
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. 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. 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.
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) 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.
The diverse features of coastal regions and the varying spatial scales of interacting systems present significant challenges for management. Coasts, being dynamic and influenced by a variety of factors globally, are shaped by processes such as river systems, which can extend far inland and increase the complexity of the coastal zone. These complexities make it difficult to clearly define hinterlands and establish effective management strategies.
In addition to physical characteristics, coastal zones encompass ecosystems, resources, and human activities, the latter being a primary driver of disruption to natural coastal systems. Management is further complicated by the use of administrative boundaries, which often rely on arbitrary lines that fragment the zone. This fragmented approach can result in management strategies that focus on individual sectors, such as land use or fisheries, potentially causing negative impacts in other sectors.
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. 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”.
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.
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.
Finding integration and synergies
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 occur within ICZM;
The term integration in a coastal management context has many horizontal and vertical aspects, which reflects the complexity of the task and 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. The ‘top-down’ approach of administrative decision making sees problematisation as a tool promoting ICZM through the idea of sustainability. 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. 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? 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, and 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".
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 zone 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 in autumn of 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 the second part of the studies.
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 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 globally by developing synergies with relevant Conventions and Agreements.
A roadmap 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 unique as it uses sustainable management within legislation, with a high level of importance placed on to the coastal environment. 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. All subsequent planning must not be inconsistent with the NZCPS, making it a very important document. 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. 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. This will provide an excellent stepping stone for future initiatives and the development of a fully integrated form of coastal management.