Scientific approaches to address challenges in coastal management

Anthropogenic activity has a negative impact on many coastal ecosystems, compromising the significant direct and indirect socio-economic benefits provided in these areas. Maintaining activities that depend on coastal zones while preserving the ecological state of the ecosystems represents a management challenge. Management of coastal zones requires scientifically based knowledge, due to the complexity of the ecological processes which occur in these ecosystems and because of interaction with the socio-economic system. The effectiveness of coastal management instruments and programmes needs to be evaluated to determine the success of adopted measures and to establish improved goals. Some of the research areas that can support coastal management include marine spatial planning, ecological modelling, development of tools to communicate science to managers, and interaction between coastal ecosystems and socio-economics. This paper reviews management instruments to address coastal zone problems and of some research areas to support management.