Plans for the Coastal Zone
63
arguments advocate “positive discrimination” in future approaches to environmental
and ecological matters. These must be accommodated within the overall framework of
Coastal Zone management strategies.
Taken together these many conflicting demands raise growing challenges to
the management of the Coastal Zone. Coastal Zone Managers need increasingly wideranging and sophisticated knowledge about the landscape, environment and sociocultural circumstances of their area of interest if they are to meet these complex
challenges and respond to them effectively. It follows that, at the heart of any effective
“best practice” management and executive decision-making system must be sound,
reliable and comprehensive geospatial and topographic information.
Mapping (Geographic Information) and the Coastal Zone
In the context of the Coastal Zone, and seen from the mapping and GIS perspective, it is
possible to crystallise three key high level groups of processes or activities:
Understanding what has happened in the past and up to the present
i.e. Modelling and understanding the current coastal zone situation, and
particularly the interaction of the maritime and terrestrial domains
Deciding what should happen in the future
i.e. Establishing the objectives, and planning the strategies that are most
appropriate for the future management of the particular coastal zone
Making it happen
i.e. Managing and monitoring the implementation of these plans and strategies
over time
In these circumstances it may be perhaps fortuitous that, within any Coastal
Management sector, (be it a Management Unit, Sub-cell or Cell), many of the
management processes and initiatives that will be planned must, perforce, be
implemented from a landward perspective. Further, a large proportion of the agencies
involved in devising, implementing and managing these schemes are land-based. Hence
there is significant potential value to be derived from a “best practice” Coastal Zone
Planning and Management regime that exploits the ready availability of high quality,
consistent land-based topographic information, such as that offered by agencies like OS.
The advent of digital technology and more importantly the recently promoted
concept of a (UK) National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF) further enhance the
potential for helpful solutions for the Coastal Zone Manager, in the UK at least. NGDF
particularly, offers the potential to facilitate the exchange, integration and value-added
analysis of disparate geospatial datasets such as those likely to be relevant to Coastal
Zone Planning and Management functions. The potential of “tools” such as GIS and
“protocols” like NGDF as aids to developing “best practice” for shoreline management
at the “map/chart interface” should not be underestimated. The potential for NGDF in
this arena in particular is discussed later in this chapter.
63
arguments advocate “positive discrimination” in future approaches to environmental
and ecological matters. These must be accommodated within the overall framework of
Coastal Zone management strategies.
Taken together these many conflicting demands raise growing challenges to
the management of the Coastal Zone. Coastal Zone Managers need increasingly wideranging and sophisticated knowledge about the landscape, environment and sociocultural circumstances of their area of interest if they are to meet these complex
challenges and respond to them effectively. It follows that, at the heart of any effective
“best practice” management and executive decision-making system must be sound,
reliable and comprehensive geospatial and topographic information.
Mapping (Geographic Information) and the Coastal Zone
In the context of the Coastal Zone, and seen from the mapping and GIS perspective, it is
possible to crystallise three key high level groups of processes or activities:
Understanding what has happened in the past and up to the present
i.e. Modelling and understanding the current coastal zone situation, and
particularly the interaction of the maritime and terrestrial domains
Deciding what should happen in the future
i.e. Establishing the objectives, and planning the strategies that are most
appropriate for the future management of the particular coastal zone
Making it happen
i.e. Managing and monitoring the implementation of these plans and strategies
over time
In these circumstances it may be perhaps fortuitous that, within any Coastal
Management sector, (be it a Management Unit, Sub-cell or Cell), many of the
management processes and initiatives that will be planned must, perforce, be
implemented from a landward perspective. Further, a large proportion of the agencies
involved in devising, implementing and managing these schemes are land-based. Hence
there is significant potential value to be derived from a “best practice” Coastal Zone
Planning and Management regime that exploits the ready availability of high quality,
consistent land-based topographic information, such as that offered by agencies like OS.
The advent of digital technology and more importantly the recently promoted
concept of a (UK) National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF) further enhance the
potential for helpful solutions for the Coastal Zone Manager, in the UK at least. NGDF
particularly, offers the potential to facilitate the exchange, integration and value-added
analysis of disparate geospatial datasets such as those likely to be relevant to Coastal
Zone Planning and Management functions. The potential of “tools” such as GIS and
“protocols” like NGDF as aids to developing “best practice” for shoreline management
at the “map/chart interface” should not be underestimated. The potential for NGDF in
this arena in particular is discussed later in this chapter.