Implementation of the Recommendation 413/2002/EC in Cantabria, Spain

Areizaga, J.1, Medina, R.1, Sanò, M.1, Juanes, J.2

1 Ocean and Coastal Research Group (GIOC), Universidad de Cantabria (ES)
2Marine Outfall & Environmental Hydraulics Group (GESHA), Universidad de Cantabria (ES)

In the early '90s the EU recognized the importance of ICZM as a way to reach the sustainable development in its coastal zones, in accordance with the results of international agreements such as the UNCED of 1992.
The Demonstration Programme operated between 1996 and 1999 through 35 pilot sites and 6 thematic studies opened the way to the COM/00/547 of 17 Sept. 2000 finally followed by the Recommendation 413/2002/EC that represents the last step to reach ICZM in Europe.
Two focal points can be identified in the 413/2002/EC:

• The national Stocktaking of actors, laws and institutions that influence the management of the coastal zone.
• The National Strategy to implement the ICZM principles.

The methodology for the implementation of the 413/2002/EC in the Cantabria Region as a pilot site is one of the first steps to its implementation at Spanish national level, and it is the result of an agreement between the Spanish Ministry of the Environment and the University of Cantabria.

The Methodology is based on the analysis of the natural system, the analysis of the socio-economic activities and the analysis of the administrative and legal framework.

The analysis of the natural system brings to the definition of management units that can be defined as complex units that are managed as a whole; these are either homogenous units from a morphological point of view, such as beaches, cliffs or WFD transitional or coastal waters, or units such as ports, MPAs or military areas.

Following the 413/2002/EC prescriptions, the analysed socio-economic sectors are fisheries and aquaculture, transport, energy, resource management, species and habitat protection, cultural heritage, employment, regional development in both rural and urban areas, tourism and recreation, industry and mining, waste management, agriculture and education; furthermore, coastal works, activities and initiatives, generally classified as coastal actions, had been distinguished for each sector, and associated to the environmental management units previously defined.

Finally, the actors, laws and institution had been identified and associated to each management unit; a specific role had been assigned to the actors by subdividing them into the stakeholders whose interests lie in the coastal zone, including them who live in it, the stakeholders who live off its resources and those who have responsibilities for its management; laws include any type of accepted norm or rule applicable to the coastal zone; institution are government bodies whose responsibility on the coastal zone is established by law.

From a technical point of view, the stocktaking had been carried out thorough the following steps:

• The delimitation of the environmental management units.
• The identification of the actors, laws and the institutions.
• A survey to confirm the role of the actors and institutions in the socio-economical sectors and their corresponding coastal actions.
• The design of a relational database for the collected data.
• The implementation of a Geographical Information System that integrates the spatial relations defined thorough the management units with the data organized in the relational database.

The data and results of the Spanish national stocktaking will help the definition of the national strategy for ICZM and will be included as a dataset in the new Master Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Coast, the main instrument of the Coastal DG to analyze the state of the coast and to plan actions for its sustainable development.

References:

• EC, 2002: Recommendation of The European Parliament and of The Council of 30 May 2002 concerning the implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Europe (2002/413/EC)

• Sanò, M., Medina, R., Areizaga, J., Juanes, J. 2005: A Methodological Framework for Coastal Planning and Management in Spain, Eco-imagine: Waterfront Management and GI, 6th FP Marie Curie Training Course, Lisbon, Portugal.

• Sanò, M., Medina, R., Peña, C. 2005: La gestione delle coste in Spagna: politiche, strategie, strumenti Urbanistica Informazioni 202, luglio/agosto 2005 Dossier Coste

• Universidad de Cantabria, Dirección General de Costas, 2005: Pliego de Bases para la Contratación de la Asistencia Técnica para la Realización del Plan Director para la Sostenibilidad de la Costa (internal document)