36
R.A. Longhorn
modern definition of GI covers a very wide spectrum of information which is gathered,
processed, disseminated and used in daily life in countless practical applications for
governing society, e.g. land registration to record ownership details and for taxation
purposes, environmental monitoring, urban and rural development planning, for
planning and maintaining transport corridors (land, sea and air) and in many other
ways.
Carrying out practical projects in coastal zone management (CZM) or other
ocean-related research would be almost impossible without geographic information,
i.e. recording the spatial or location attribute of each piece of data collected - often in
3-dimensions!
Coastal and deep-ocean marine geographic information offers
considerable opportunity for expanded use of GIS (geographic information systems)
tools and modelling techniques to make better and more rapid use of the data collected.
Marine GI often requires the latest technology to provide the position attributes for the
data being collected, including remote sensing, GPS for data collected in the field, and
sonar for determining depths or locations of objects. Data integration is difficult and
expensive, especially across scientific disciplines, across projects, across data collection
and management technologies and across country borders.
This chapter attempts to briefly introduce major initiatives relating to coastal
zone research and management of the coastal regions which are pan-European in
nature, i.e. inherently trans-national or cross-border, rather than looking at specific
programmes at national level. Table 1 lists the many countries in the EU, the EEA -
European Economic Area, East and Central Europe, plus the Russian Federation and
Maghreb and Mediterranean regions, all of which participate in coastal projects which
are often partly or wholly funded by the EU Institutions or by EU Member States via
international aid and development programmes.
Note that several countries span “regions” and thus may find themselves
participating in several different cross-border programmes at one time, often executed
under different rules and/or with different objectives, while other countries may share a
common border on a single ocean or sea, yet be unable to participate in a single
programme because of funding restrictions, which are often political and geographical
in nature. A typical example is funding to the Russian Federation under TACIS but
not under Phare, even though a major Phare project might be enacted in the Baltic.
Diverse Coastal Zone Activities Require Diverse Programmes of Research
Table 2 attempts to categorise the diversity in types of activities relating to
coastal zone management, to remind the reader of the wide range and diverse nature of
projects and programmes which are conducted at national or international (crossborder) level. These go beyond pure scientific research, and require quite different
types of funding and forms of agreement or rules of participation, depending upon the
type of activity and scope of the project or programme. Knowing that many of the
policy makers who set up these rules or project/programme skeletons have little or no
experience in CZM or of GI/GIS, you begin to realise the importance of education,
R.A. Longhorn
modern definition of GI covers a very wide spectrum of information which is gathered,
processed, disseminated and used in daily life in countless practical applications for
governing society, e.g. land registration to record ownership details and for taxation
purposes, environmental monitoring, urban and rural development planning, for
planning and maintaining transport corridors (land, sea and air) and in many other
ways.
Carrying out practical projects in coastal zone management (CZM) or other
ocean-related research would be almost impossible without geographic information,
i.e. recording the spatial or location attribute of each piece of data collected - often in
3-dimensions!
Coastal and deep-ocean marine geographic information offers
considerable opportunity for expanded use of GIS (geographic information systems)
tools and modelling techniques to make better and more rapid use of the data collected.
Marine GI often requires the latest technology to provide the position attributes for the
data being collected, including remote sensing, GPS for data collected in the field, and
sonar for determining depths or locations of objects. Data integration is difficult and
expensive, especially across scientific disciplines, across projects, across data collection
and management technologies and across country borders.
This chapter attempts to briefly introduce major initiatives relating to coastal
zone research and management of the coastal regions which are pan-European in
nature, i.e. inherently trans-national or cross-border, rather than looking at specific
programmes at national level. Table 1 lists the many countries in the EU, the EEA -
European Economic Area, East and Central Europe, plus the Russian Federation and
Maghreb and Mediterranean regions, all of which participate in coastal projects which
are often partly or wholly funded by the EU Institutions or by EU Member States via
international aid and development programmes.
Note that several countries span “regions” and thus may find themselves
participating in several different cross-border programmes at one time, often executed
under different rules and/or with different objectives, while other countries may share a
common border on a single ocean or sea, yet be unable to participate in a single
programme because of funding restrictions, which are often political and geographical
in nature. A typical example is funding to the Russian Federation under TACIS but
not under Phare, even though a major Phare project might be enacted in the Baltic.
Diverse Coastal Zone Activities Require Diverse Programmes of Research
Table 2 attempts to categorise the diversity in types of activities relating to
coastal zone management, to remind the reader of the wide range and diverse nature of
projects and programmes which are conducted at national or international (crossborder) level. These go beyond pure scientific research, and require quite different
types of funding and forms of agreement or rules of participation, depending upon the
type of activity and scope of the project or programme. Knowing that many of the
policy makers who set up these rules or project/programme skeletons have little or no
experience in CZM or of GI/GIS, you begin to realise the importance of education,