Coastal zone GIS data model: a proposal for ICZM
Jorge Brenner & José
A. Jiménez
Coastal Management Research Group/Marine Engineering Laboratory
Universitat Politècnica
de Catalunya (ES)
In the past decades the Catalonian coastal area has been subject
to an intense human pressure due to the high concentration of activities and settlements.
Although some of the impacts are evident others are not and thus the assessment
of the coastal zone's health is complicated. In order to address this issue we
attempt to assess the state of the coastal ecosystem's ecological functions and
services using a GIS. Due to the data driven characteristic of GIS a data model
was defined based on specific management vision and goals. The proposed ad hoc
data model includes the most common spatial features of the Catalonian coastal
zone. Four main modules were defined as part of the core ICZM GIS: environmental,
socio-economic, use and pressure/impact, and policy/management. Features on spatial
layers were attributed with their behaviours as natural as they are supposed to
be found on nature and/or anthropogenic environments. This special attributing
provides to the database a more natural relationship among elements and environmental
responses and constitutes its most relevant design issue. There is a growing need
for a common spatial framework for coastal zone GIS for managerial purposes. Although
GIS constitutes one of the most common analytical and synthetic tools in ICZM,
a consensus on a general spatial data model still need to be achieved. It will
also be desirable the incorporation of previous work on specific-area data model,
especially in biodiversity and the marine environment.