COASTLINE 07-1 Coastal management in Germany - EUCC

Marine spatial planning
The Green Paper adopted by the European Commission in June
2006 ”Towards a future Maritime Policy for the Union” calls
for spatial planning systems to regulate economic activities in
coastal waters, building on the ecosystem-based management
approach. This is a new policy area and will be a great challenge
for administrators and planners alike.
The relationship between ICZM
and spatial planning 1
A research project ”Integrated Coastal Zone Management
(ICZM): Strategies for coastal and marine spatial planning” has
recently been concluded (www.bbr.bund.de). Conceived to support
the development and implementation of a national ICZM
strategy, the project took stock of development trends, opportunities,
and challenges faced by Germany’s coastal and marine
areas and made practical suggestions for implementing longterm
ICZM processes. A key element of the project was the relationship
between ICZM and spatial planning. Recognising pro-
Warnemuende beach (Photo: Gerald Schernewski)
found changes in the way marine spaces are used, the project
first of all discussed new and emerging demands on spatial planning,
particularly those arising from increasing land-sea interactions
and the growing density and intensity of marine use. It
then considered ICZM and spatial planning as management
tools, proposing ways of linking them in an integrated approach
to national ICZM. Proposals for marine spatial monitoring were
also made. Many of the ideas developed in this project have
been incorporated in Germany’s national ICZM strategy.
ICZM-Indicators 2
Two sets of ICZM indicators can usually be differentiated (a)
sustainable development indicators designed to give an idea of
the sustainable situation of the coastal zones e.g. coastal erosion,
quality of bathing water indicators, and (b) indicators
which show the progress of the implementation of ICZM-processes
through a series of different phases and related actions
which have to be discussed and evaluated by stakeholders for
different years and for different levels (national, regional, local).
As a response to the German ICZM-strategy we have developed
a GIS-based overview of Sustainability Development Indicators
for coastal zones, and have made a proposal as to how
to survey data on ICZM-processes using techniques from the
social sciences.
The ICZM-Marker developed for the EU Working Group on
Indicators and Data by EUCC International is also rather useful
to raise awareness in local ICZM or spatial planning processes.
Assessing future coastal
development 3
The project Coastal Futures (www.coastal-futures.org) aims to
assess chances and risks associated with marine and coastal use
patterns associated with long-term political and societal developments.
The research approach aims to raise awareness for
the complexities surrounding coastal zone decision-making
using the development of scenarios for the next 50 years. The
Development of population density 1990-2003
in Northern Germany
(Source: A. Daschkeit, A. Beck, BBR)
4