Coastal zone delimitation

Article reviewed by

Job DronkersSee the discussion page

Preview

For sustainable development and use of the coastal zone resources, it is necessary to attention to a question of the coastal zone delimitation which will assist to define the object and the subject of management within the decision of various ICM problems (however, see the discussion page). The problem can be simplified, accepting "the coastal zone" is the territory containing "water-land" border, land and water territorial components, including shelf.

It is possible to outline four basic types of the coastal zone delimitation:

• Fixation of the specific distances;
• Usage of various variable distances;
• Delimitation in view of users;
• Simultaneous usage of various principles.

However if to take in attention the necessity of the decision of governance problems, that actually is ICM basis, it is necessary to search for answers in the second principle of the coastal zone delimitation.

Coastal zone delimitation by the governance-economic principle

Fig.1: Three-level structure of the coastal zones management (On an example of the Russian Federation)

Fig.2: Two-level structure of the coastal zones management (On an example of Republic Portugal)

Depending on principles of country territorial division (which is in direct association of country size) it is possible to outline two types of vertical structure of coastal zones management: - The three-level structure of management consolidating a strategic level of management, an operative level of management and a tactical (local) level of management (fig. 1); - The two-level structure of management consolidating a strategic level of management and an operational-tactical level of management (fig. 2).

The different quantity of levels of the coastal zone management is defined by structure of the country government. For example, in such countries as the Russian Federation, Italy, Spain, should be applied three-level structure of coastal zones management, and in such countries, as Latvia, Portugal, Estonia, should be applied two-level system. As a result we receive following logic numbers for process of coastal zone management:

• On hierarchy of the coastal zone management: state – regional – local (for the three-level system) or state – local (for the two-level system);
• On hierarchy of decided problems: strategic – operative – tactical (for the three-level system) or strategic – operational-tactical (for the two-level system).

Proceeding from the hierarchies, it is possible to define the borders of the coastal zone corresponding to level of administrative problems (fig. 3-4).

Fig.3: The coastal zone delimitation of three-level structure of management

For the three-level system of coastal zones management the borders are defined for various governance levels by following principles

For the first level of governance (level of strategic planning):

• The water border is defined by border of the exclusive economic zone (up to 200 miles);
• The land border is defined by border of the federal subject.

For the second level of governance (level of operational planning):

• The water border is defined by border of territorial waters (up to 12 miles);
• The land border is defined by border of regional municipality of the federal subject.

For the third level of governance (level tactical (local) planning):

• The water border is defined by border of territorial waters (up to 12 miles);
• The land border is defined by border of local municipality.

Fig.4: The coastal zone delimitation of two-level structure of management

For the two-level system of the coastal zones management of border are defined for various governance levels by following principles

For the first level of governance (level of strategic planning):

• The water border is defined by border of the exclusive economic zone (up to 200 miles);
• The land border is defined by border of coastal province.

For the second level of governance (level of operational-tactical planning):

• The water border is defined by border of territorial waters (up to 12 miles);
• The land border is defined by border of local municipality.

Let's note that for the third level of three-level system of management (and, accordingly, for the second level of two-level system of management) the definition of land borders of the coastal zone is not always possible. For example, in sparsely populated areas of local municipality of the northern Russian Arctic the governance borders are absent due to absence both settlements and forms of economic activities. In these events two variants of the decision are possible:

• Formal borders of the coastal zone (for example, 5 km from shore line);
• Due to absence of local municipality it’s possible to not outline the third level of management of the coastal zone (the second for the two-level system).

Such technique of the coastal zone delimitation enables the flexible approach to allocation of object and the subject of the coastal zone management. Doubtless that for the decision of problems of the coastal zone management it is necessary to consider the different levels of coastal zone management systems, and, accordingly, different levels of coastal zone planning.

See also

Defining the Territorial Scope for ICZM

References

1. Гогоберидзе Г.Г. Проблематика национальной морской политики и трехуровневая модель управления прибрежной зоной Российской Федерации. // Вестник Чувашского университета. Гуманитарные науки. – № 3. – 2005. – С. 89-100. (Gogoberidze G. Problems of the national marine policy and three-level management model for the coastal zone of the russian federation, 2005., on Russian).
2. Cicin-Sain B., Knecht R.W. (with the assistance of Fisk G.W. and Jang D.). Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management: Concept and National Practices. – IOC\UNESCO Publishing, 1998. – 471p.
3. Плинк Н.Л., Гогоберидзе Г.Г. Политика действий в прибрежной зоне. – СПб.: изд. РГГМУ, 2003. – 226 с. (Plink N., Gogoberidze G. Coastal zone policy, 2003., on Russian).

The main author of this article is Gogoberidze, Georgy Please note that others may also have edited the contents of this article. Citation: Gogoberidze, Georgy (2024): Coastal zone delimitation. Available from http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Coastal_zone_delimitation [accessed on 25-11-2024] For other articles by this author see Category:Articles by Gogoberidze, Georgy For an overview of contributions by this author see Special:Contributions/GGG