General informations
Description
Climate change is expected to have severe impacts on coastal areas in particular due to sea level rise. This can cause increase in flood risk, coastal erosion and loss of low-lying systems (e.g. deltas, coastal lagoons and barrier islands) due to permanent inundation. It can also induce or increase saltwater intrusion in freshwater systems, further endangering coastal ecosystems. Moreover, expected rise in sea water temperatures will contribute to a restructuring of coastal ecosystems with implications for ocean circulation, biogeochemical cycling and fishery yields. Biological systems will be affected by ocean acidification, too.Climate change challenges in coastal areas need to be addressed through integrated and ecosystem-based approaches, taking in consideration also other pressures, as the littorization process, i.e. the concentration of human population, activities and settlements in coastal areas. Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) is an acknowledged process to deal with current and long-term coastal challenges, including climate change. ICM promotes a strategic (long-term viewing), integrated and adaptive approach to coastal zone planning and management in order to contribute to the sustainable development of coastal areas. It aims to provide a better context to benefit from synergies and to level out inconsistencies across different policies and sectors. In this perspective stakeholders involvement and vertical and horizontal integration among (national, regional and local) authorities and sectors are key factors of the ICM process. The 2002 EU Recommendation (2002/413/EC) identifies the general principles of the ICM approach and promotes the development of national ICM strategies as well as transboundary cooperation in coastal zone planning and management. Furthermore, EU ratified the ICZM Protocol to the Barcelona Conventions that entered into force in March 2011, thus defining a common legal binding framework for ICM in the Mediterranean Sea.Several European countries have promoted ICM initiatives, including strategies, plans, programmes, pilot actions, etc. Great flexibility is left to the responsible authorities in the implementation of ICM activities. However, the 2002 EU Recommendation and EC COM(2013) 133 define some minimum requirements for ICM strategies, i.e.:<ul><li>Stocktaking of major actors, institutions and laws;</li><li>Inventory of existing measures (e.g. plans) already applied in the coastal zone and analyses of further needs;</li><li>Mix of instruments to reach ICM goals, e.g.: ICM plans specifying actions for the identified key coastal activities (including climate change mitigation and adaptation), land purchase mechanisms and declarations of public domain, voluntary agreements, economic and fiscal incentives, etc.;</li><li>Measure to promote public participation and mechanisms to ensure vertical and horizontal coordination;</li><li>Systems for monitoring and disseminating information on coastal zone (e.g. Coastal Atlas) and the ICM process;</li><li>Durable financing sources of the ICM process;</li><li>Mechanism to ensure integration and coherence with Maritime Spatial Plans.</li></ul>The most recent overview (2011) of ICM implementation in EU Member States is provided by the EU study “Analysis of Member States progress reports on Integrated Coastal Zone Management”, while a wide set of best practices in ICMcan be found in the database of the Ourcoast Project (see Websites section below).</p><p>Among ICM-related instruments, Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) provide assessment of coastal risks (principally flooding and coastal erosion) and present a long-term framework (including concrete actions) to reduce these risks to people and the coastal environment in a sustainable manner. A SMP is a high level operational document that forms an important element of the strategy for flood and coastal erosion risk management. SMs are often based on the identification of management units which can be delimited according to hydraulic, morphological and sediment transport criteria. In relation to climate change and rising sea levels intervention options for shoreline management can be grouped in five principal directions:<ul><li><li>Do nothing;</li><li>Hold the line; keeping the existing defence line by maintaining or improving the current protection standard;</li><li>Managed realignment; identification of a new line of defence landward of the original one and, where appropriate, construction of new defences;</li><li>Move seaward; advancing the existing defence line seawards by constructing new defences, e.g. used in cases of important land reclamation projects;</li><li>Limited coastline intervention on natural processes for risk reduction while allowing natural coastal change (e.g. beach nourishments, flood warning systems, dune and forest maintenance and reconstruction, land use planning defining building restrictions in coastal strip).</li></ul>