Evaluation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in ...

Evaluation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in Europe – Final Report
Degree of Implementation of ICZM Principles in the North Sea Countries
4) Is the process localcontext
specific?
5) Does the ICZM respect
and work with natural
processes?
6) Is the process based
on participatory planning
and management?
7) Does the process
support and involve all
relevant administrative
bodies?
8) Is there a balanced
combination of
instruments in planning
and management?
Given the length of the coastline in Belgium only the local scale really applies. However,
protection and conservation of cultural heritage and natural systems plays a strong driving force
within the ICZM approach. All levels of administration are strongly involved in the process
although opportunity for a public voice to be heard appear limited.
Belgium has a strongly man-made and altered coastline and there is a strong indication that
future management strategies will seek to work more closely with natural processes and
conserve and protect natural system to provide natural function to coastal systems.
Participation within administrative levels good and communication to the public strong, however,
avenues for public participation are limited. Opportunity for public voice in the process is
currently weak but recognised as such. It appears that not all groups within the private sector are
included in the process yet and unclear if there is a strategy to address this.
There does appear to be good vertical and horizontal integration within and between administration
levels as well as some components of the private sector.
There is a strong balance of approaches and materials produced that inform all stakeholders of
the ICZM process in Belgium that covers laws and regulations, voluntary agreements, research
and education and information provision. Funding is identified as a potential barrier to a
sustainable integration of ICZM within the management process of coasts in Belgium.
Denmark
Principles 1-8
Because of the ongoing reform of the municipal and regional system, no ICZM strategy has been
developed, thus no comment.
Germany
1) Is there a holistic
thematic and geographic
perspective in the
process?
2) Is there a long-term
perspective envisaged?
3) Is an adaptive
management approach
applied during a gradual
process?
4) Is the process localcontext
specific?
5) Does the ICZM respect
and work with natural
processes?
Good consideration of sectors and levels in a geographical context. The complex interlinkage
between national state and federal state authorities is well-documented and conflicting sectoral
and geographical issues are addressed.
No explicit statement is made concerning the time horizon of the ICZM strategy, but a future
sustainable development is the denominator. Climate change, sea-level rise, increase of storm
events and the precautionary principle are mentioned and considered.
The spatial planning act allows also informal regional and trans-regional collaboration which has
gained prominence since the 1990ies. Instruments endorse regional development concepts,
township networks, and regional marketing. All of which are flexible and problem focused.
Several programmes have been initiated that monitor the state of the coastal areas, such as the
continuous spatial observation carried out by the Federal Office for Building and Regional
Planning (BBR), the national-federal state monitoring programme on the status of environmental
quality in North Sea and Baltic (BLMP) and CONTIS (continental shelf information system) by the
Federal Office for Maritime Shipping and Hydrography (BSH). Most parts of these data are
available to the public.
Because of the federal nature of the German republic, the regional and local aspects of the
various coastal states are well covered in terms of legal processes. Next, due to the
heterogeneous nature of the coast (tidal dominated Wadden Sea versus non-tidal brackish
waters of the Baltic), the authorities have different schemes and approaches in place to meet the
challenges. The local/municipal and regional authorities’ have been actively engaged in various
activities related to the promotion of sustainable development and ICZM (chapter 4.7.3.). Maybe
the most prominent and successful example is the communal Euregio “The Wadden” cluster of
all Wadden Sea islands and the high sea island of Helgoland. Coastal protection measures are
carried out through the auspice of the federal states. Cultural heritage is protected on federal
state level through their respective monument conservation act and on national level by the
nature conservation act which protects also historic cultural landscapes.
Chapter 3.8. of the national ICZM report deals with the problem of climate change and the
related problems of maintaining the current coastline, but does not lead to a satisfactory
resolution (e.g. buffer zones so far only in the suggestion stage). Strong focus is placed on the
protection of biodiversity and environmental quality, indicating a strong ecological centred
approach where people and their needs are mainly regarded as “impacting disturber”. This is
also reflected in the fact, that caring capacity assessments are not listed in the German strategy.
This underlines the yet in Germany unresolved issue of whether to understand ICZM foremost as
a spatial planning problem or an environmental protection tool.
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