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11 th International Symposium for GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zones Managementexample, in the case of the aforementioned projects, data-related challenges were recurrent issues for a variety ofthematic areas such as economics, governance, environmental quality and social well-being, the four recognisedpillars of sustainability. In some instances the same problem was noted for the same desired datasets e.g. variedtemporal coverage for numbers of berth and moorings when examining coastal tourism. Corresponding data issuesregarding long-term data availability and variable access to datasets were for example noted during theCOREPOINT project (2004–2008), which tested ICZM Progress Indicators developed as early as 2003 (Pickaver etal., 2004; Ballinger et al., 2010), and problems with data availability and scale have been raised as issues by thecoastal science and practice community (Cummins et al., 2005).Figure 1. Relationship between the individual elements of the methodological approach.While it is absolutely essential that the development of indicators is not driven by data availability, in order toavoid bias and to really identify the best possible indicator, the usability of such a tool is intrinsically linked to theavailability of required data in an appropriate format (Cummins et al., 2005). Some of the reported challenges fromcoastal sustainability indicator projects (Xavier et al., 2007; O’Mahony et al., 2009; Ballinger et al., 2010; Loizidouand Loizides, 2012; Pickaver et al., 2012) include: inconsistent data collection and management frameworks between countries and/ regions; variation in reporting formats for related datasets or in relation to frequency of data collection concerningthe same measurements; desired raw data at the local scale often only being available as aggregated values from a higher administrativelevel and; the lack of coherence for many data gathering programs relating to spatial and temporal scale.The above challenges highlight the absence of coastal policies that would support data and information collection inappropriate coverage to the coastal zone.Although GIS was deemed useful as a complementary element for example within DEDUCE and SUSTAIN, itwas not universally used, as experiences of using GIS varied, and in certain cases difficulties arose when identifyingcoast specific GIS datasets that corresponded to the management needs of a particular region (Xavier et al., 2007;Loizidou and Loizides, 2012; Pickaver et al., 2012). However, reported challenges in terms of design, nature of dataand the dissemination of information when attempting to integrate data with varied geographical extent and functionfor local areas of interest may have benefitted from a dedicated GIS approach (Cummins et al., 2005).The use of GI Systems and existing dataCoastal GI Systems have proven to be of immense value for researchers, managers and decision makers, as theyprovide access to and storage of coastal spatial data, allowing data integration and visualisation as well as furtheranalyses (Balaguer et al., 2008; Rodríguez et al., 2009; Pittman et al., 2011). Coastal research utilising GIS for deci-132