Adalberto Vallega

Fundamentals of integrated coastal management

Foreword E.M. Borgese. Preface. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. The Subject. 2. The Coastal Area in Global Change. 3. The Coastal Ecosystem. 4. Administrative Areas and Jurisdictional Zones. 5. The Coastal Economic Organisation. 6. The Geographical Extent of the Coastal Area. 7. The Coastal Use Structure. 8. Conflicts between Coastal Uses. 9. The Coastal Decision-Making System. 10. Integrated Coastal Management Programmes. Conclusion. Acronyms and Abbreviations. References. Index. Notes.

Urban waterfront facing integrated coastal management

Abstract Essentially, this paper aims at discussing the trends of waterfront development in the context of the urbanised coastal areas, and the possible integration between waterfront organisation and integrated management of the coastal area. To deal with this subject, first the external environment influencing waterfront evolution is considered, focusing on global change, the globalisation of economic systems, and geopolitical change. The diffusion of waterfront re-vitalisation programmes is considered in the context of the urban growth of coastal areas concentrating attention on the numerical increase of megacities and proto-megacities. The Ekistics theory, according to which urban growth will lead to the creation of the ecumenopolis (planetary urban system) including the marine ecumenopolis (urbanisation of all the coastal belts), is considered with the aim of foreshadowing the possible role which could be played by maritime waterfronts in the course of the 21st century. The focus then shifts to the waterfront itself considering the historical triggers for waterfront revitalisation plans. In this context the waterfront functions are incorporated into the coastal use structure by adopting a matrix-based representation. The expanding basis for conflicts between the waterfront functions is emphasised. A framework of options occurring in waterfront development is presented with the aim of responding to two questions: (i) how the waterfront may be designed to be consistent with sustainable development, in that acting as a top rank spatial system conforming to integrated management of the coastal area; (ii) whether and how the waterfront could act as a leading spatial system to carry out integrated management of the coastal area within which it is located. Discussion of the former question leads to designing the optimum choice among the possible objectives of waterfront management, while discussion of the latter question leads to considering the waterfront as the central subsystem of the coastal system, and to reckoning its organisation as including high-rank functions of the coastal area. Reasoning leads to focusing on the design of waterfronts able to optimise their integration into the coastal system, and their development within coastal management. To realise this prospect an international discussion on the waterfront–coastal area integration may be desirable in order to pursue two basic goals: (i) to explore how coastal area management and waterfront planning may usefully interact generating a long-term positive feedback; (ii) to design the optimum waterfront organisation, intended as a planning and management model to be used as a reference basis for integrating the waterfront functions with coastal management strategies.

Ocean governance in post-modern society—a geographical perspective

The contradiction between the claim for integrated management of the coastal areas by the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992), on the one hand, and the persistence of analytical epistemological approaches by the scientific community on the other, is discussed. In this context, it is emphasised how the modern approach led to the desegregation of the ocean into two realms, namely the coastal ocean subject to national jurisdiction, and the international ocean, making it difficult to design and operate integrated management. Moreover, the international ocean is vertically subdivided into two realms, namely the water column, having the status of res nullius, and the deep seabed, claimed as patrimony of mankind; hence the increasing difficulty in operating the protection of the ocean ecosystem and the efficient use of its resources while the human pressure on the ocean is growing without precedent. A positive feedback is needed between science and policy, the former being encouraged to overcome the analytical, modern approach; the latter being keen to consider the long term humankind-sensitive interest above the national interests. The role of geography in contributing to these prospects is discussed in the final part.

Sea management : a theoretical approach

The theoretical context. The scientific importance of sea management. From the coastal area to the ocean. The evolution of the natural environment. Margins and ocean areas. Evolving continental margins. The evolution of society. The evolution of society: historical stages. The spatial dimension: diffusion processes. Legal frameworks and the physical environment. The claiming of jurisdictional zones. Internal waters and territorial seas. The sea use structure. Starting points. The sea structure as a whole: the sea use framework. Managing the sea use structure. The role of the external environment. The organizational levels of the sea use structure. The coastal use structure. Introductory remarks. The coastal area: a teleology-based view. Managing the coastal area. The management system. The role of the external environment. The ocean use structure. The nature of the issue. The extent of the ocean area: the natural environment. Managing the ocean area. The ocean management system. The external environment. Conclusions. References. Appendices. A - sea use framework. B - sea management patterns. C - regional seas programme: status of regional agreements. D - the coastal use framework. E - the ocean use framework. Index.

A conceptual approach to integrated coastal management

This paper focuses on the concept of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) putting the theoretical basis of Chapter 17, Agenda 21 (UN Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED), in relation to the theoretical backgrounds on which the development of coastal area programmes have been founded. Reasoning leads us to think that the general system theory is the proper conceptual basis to stimulate ICM and that, in this theoretical context, integration is to be pursued between (i) the claiming of national maritime jurisdictional belts and the protection of the coastal ecosystem, (ii) the coastal system and its external environment, (iii) the decision making systems acting at all levels (international, regional, national and local). Integration, therefore, should be thought of as a political process.

Towards the sustainable management of the Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is moving from the Action Plan to the adoption of the Agenda 21, namely a sustainable development-inspired programme, extending co-operation between states to the economic development and social equity according to the UNCED Agenda 21. Analysis is focused on the role of a unique physical framework, characterized by complicated tectonic movements, a stage-based view of the changes in the economic contexts, including the main coastal and ocean uses, and the establishment of a continental shelf-based maritime jurisdictional framework. In the final part, the need to re-structure the decision-making systems is considered.

Focus on integrated coastal management : comparing perspectives

Abstract In 1999, the course on Integrated Coastal Management in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Coasts: Focus on Conflicts was held. It was convened by the EC/US Consortium for Transatlantic Cooperation in Marine Policy and Coastal Management Education, and took place in Genoa (Italy) and Seville (Spain) with the participation of students and teachers from various countries. In that context, intense discussions took place by comparing some case studies from the USA and Italy. Discussions led to focusing on different, conceptual and empirical approaches not only to coastal conflicts, but also to coastal management as a whole. This article aims at discussing these subjects considering the concepts of coastal management, and of coastal conflict, that have been adopted in the USA and those that may be drawn by the Italian experience. The USA pragmatic approach, which has led to consider the coastal conflicts in themselves with the aim of finding solutions between users, is compared with the Italian one, which has been more incline to consider conflicts between uses in the framework of coastal planning. Finally, three peculiar arenas of Italian coastal conflicts — namely, landscape, culture heritage and waterfront revitalisation — are considered.

The coastal cultural heritage facing coastal management

Abstract This paper is concerned with the role of cultural heritage in coastal areas, including land belts and coastal marine waters in the prospect of operating sustainable development-aimed strategies. It is a part of the investigations carried out in the framework of the Progetto Finalizzato Beni Culturali (Special Project Safeguard of Cultural Heritage) convened by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, the Italian National Research Council). Essentially, it aims at contributing to the discussion on how the mise-en-valeur of the coastal cultural heritage may be framed within integrated coastal management programmes. In this view, the discourse on the coastal cultural heritage runs along this pathway: (i) global (climatic) change and globalisation are assumed to be the key components of the external environment with which the coastal area interacts; (ii) the conceptual framework of coastal management, as it can be deduced by the background guidelines from Agenda 21 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED), is considered; (iii) the legal framework, which the coastal area is characterised by, is taken into account by focusing on its implications on the management patterns. At this point, attention is concentrated on the role of cultural heritage in the framework of integrated coastal management approaches. It is considered, how this pivotal component of the coastal area has been dealt with bythe intergovernmental organisations. Special consideration is attributed to the European Code of Conduct for Coastal Management Zones, since it considers the ecological patrimony and cultural heritage as giving shape to a unique ethically-endowed reality, which materialised through landscapes and seascapes. The final step consists of the design of a tentative Code of Conduct for Coastal Cultural Heritage consisting of some background and operational principles.

The regional approach to the ocean, the ocean regions, and ocean regionalisation—a post-modern dilemma

Abstract Essentially, this paper aims at considering how the ocean regionalisation may be implemented focusing on the principle of sustainable development, on the subsequent criteria designed by the inter-governmental organisation framework, and on the approaches from the scientific literature. In this respect, a model is proposed, according to which two main stages are identified: (i) the stage of the modern approach to the ocean, which was operated by the modern society and was supported by the culture of modernity; (ii) the stage of the post-modern approach, which has been triggered by the converging inputs from the changes in society and nature. The watershed between these two stages may be located in the 1970s. The investigation may be carried out considering a triangular relationship between (i) the changing ocean reality ( ontological dimension ), (ii) the representation of this reality ( semiological dimension ), and (iii) the building up of signified, consisting in theories, meta-theories and values ( epistemological and ethical dimensions ). In this framework, special relevance is attributed to the interaction between science and policy. Moving from this basis, how ocean regionalisation had been conceived by oceanography, geography and law is considered focusing on the implications that have arisen in terms of ocean management. Analysis is essentially focused on three questions: (i) how much the conceptual implications of the approach to the ocean regional scale have been underestimated, and how ample the political consequences have been; (ii) why the political designs referring to this spatial scale of the ocean, which have been carrying out since the 1970s, have been marked by a lack of consistency of the legal framework with the prospect of operating sustainable management programmes; (iii) whether, and what kind of, discrepancy has solidified between the legal framework, provided by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the ecosystem-oriented approach to the ocean, designed by the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). These considerations lead to identify three cardinal needs. First, the need to try lessons from the Regional Seas Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by carrying out a critical analysis of the conceptual background and methodological endowment which it was based on, and of the subsequent political outcomes. Secondly, an increasing need for scientific approaches supported by the consideration of the ocean as a bi-modular system consisting in ecosystems and organisational patterns, being both modules subject to the impacts from global change and globalisation. Thirdly, a need to design and operate a more effective interaction between science and policy, and, as far as science in itself is concerned, the need to design a more epistemologically-sound interaction between natural and social disciplines. Moving from this discussion, it is proposed to distinguish the mere ocean area , where the organisational patterns have not yet created a real ocean system, from the ocean region , which differently has acquired the features of an ocean system. These two kinds of spaces may be found in the coastal milieu, extending up to the outer edge of the continental margin, in the deep-ocean, extending seawards from the continental margin, or they may extend across the continental margin and the deep-ocean. Where it is agreed that ocean reality may evolve on the basis of these two reference patterns, the following sequence of conceptual mises-au-point and statements may be considered. • The ocean area —This kind of ocean space may solidify in those areas where the ocean is frequented and used in the traditional ways without benefiting from a well-designed organisational pattern. Human presence and resource uses have brought about spatial differentiation but not such a real cohesion which may be only achieved by adopting an organisational plan. • The ocean region —This occurs only where an ocean area is endowed with such an organisational framework that allows the pursuit of clearly pre-determined objectives in terms of environmental, resource management, and economic development. This is the product of an extensive human interaction with the ocean ecosystem, and of a substantial political approach to the ocean milieu. Where it is agreed that ocean reality may evolve on the basis of these two reference patterns, the following sequence of conceptual mises-au-point and statements may be considered: • The ocean region and regional strategy —At the present time, ocean regions may be found only in quite limited parts of the ocean world. • The final objective —Where the decision-making centres conform their programmes and actions to the principles and guidelines from UNCED, the objective of each ocean region should be the pursuit of sustainable development on the regional scale. • Sustainable region —This occurs where the regional organisation is primarily based on the protection of the ecosystem integrity, where economic development operates through the optimisation of resource usage, and where social equity, including the access to the natural and cultural heritage of the ocean environment, is guaranteed. • Ocean regionalisation —When an individual ocean is subject to the organisational forces that lead to the creation of regions, it can be stated that an ocean regionalisation has occurred. • Global change —Ocean regionalisation should be viewed as one of the most important consequences of the global, environmental and social change that characterises the present phase of society. • Globalisation —The setting up of a transport and communication global network, together with the associated establishment of global production and consume patterns, of market strategies and social behaviour, may be regarded as the cardinal set of socio-economic factors, which ocean regionalisation is going to increasingly depend on. • Enlargement of the geographical approach —The development of ocean regions encourages to set up effective inter-disciplinary approaches, that primarily should focus on: (i) the consistency of the regional organisation with the regional objectives; (ii) the consistency of the ocean resource use with the protection of the ecosystem, primarily the safeguard of its biodiversity, productivity and resilience; and (iii) the configuration and functions of the decision-making system in guiding regional organisation. • Ocean region and ecosystem —The most desirable conditions in terms of optimal ocean organisation on the regional scale occur where the spatial extent of the ocean, which is encompassed by an individual regional management programme, fully coincides with the spatial extent of an ocean ecosystem, or with a set of contiguous ecosystems. • Decision-making systems —The more the co-operative process between decision-making systems operating in contiguous ocean regions develops, the greater the potential for a holistic political approach to the oceans becomes. The spatial consequences deriving from the interaction between the decision-making centres are of peculiar interest.

Regional level implementation of Chapter 17: the UNEP approach to the Mediterranean

Abstract The Mediterranean was the first sea in which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Seas Programme was initiated. An Action Plan was launched (1975) and a Convention was adopted (1976) to pursue, on the regional scale, the goals defined by the UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972) . In 1995 the Mediterranean was the first sea to move towards a sustainable development-aimed programme by the adoption of a new Convention, legally regarded as the amendment of the 1976 Convention, and the correlated adoption of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP), Phase II. Thus, the Mediterranean has always served as an arena in which to define goals and targets and to design legal and institutional tools. In the current phase it is useful to focus on the evolution of the Mediterranean co-operation carried out in the framework of the Regional Seas Programme putting it in relation to the goals designed by, as well as the crucial issues highlighted in, Chapter 17 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Agenda 21 . In this respect, the innovative role of the new system consisting of the 1995 Convention and the Mediterranean Action Plan, Phase II, is presented and discussed and its basic effectiveness is evaluated as regards the decision-making process through which it has been designed, the role of its geographical coverage and that of the existing framework of maritime national jurisdictional zones. Moving from this, the subject areas that UNCED Agenda 21 , Chapter 17 , assumed as closely relevant to the pursuit of sustainable development of the ocean, including regional seas, are considered on the Mediterranean scale with the aim of realising how and to what extent they are being effectively pursued. This analysis, carried out with close reference to the materials from the Ninth Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (Barcelona, 5–8 June 1995 ) and the Conference of the Plenipotentiaries on the Barcelona Convention (Barcelona, 9–10 June 1995 ), leads us to believe that the complexity of the Convention/MAP system, together with the different attitudes from the Mediterranean states, while giving shape to the prospects of promising outcomes, is characterised by increasing risks of a decline of effectiveness.