Dynamic management of the coasts: marine spatial planning

Abstract

The Black Sea is one of the world's largest enclosed water bodies and is suffering from human-induced anthropogenic pressure. Fish stocks are in danger, eutrophication is persistent in some areas, and pollution, floods and coastal erosion are always risks in this unique ecosystem. More than 10 million people live in the coastal zone of the southern Black Sea. The limited coastal area and resources create conflicts among inhabitants of the region and governing bodies. There is an urgent need to protect the coastal zone and living resources and to eliminate the personal and governmental issues by taking account of all stakeholders' approaches to the problem. A sample application based on real data from the region was presented to stress the types of conflicts in Trabzon, Yomra district. The problem was found to be mainly a spatial management issue in the coastal zone. In this study a dynamic integrated approach is proposed for the spatial management of the southern Black Sea coastal zone. In general, the proposed approach will be a kind of decision support system including social, economic, biotic and abiotic factors to determine the spatial management of the study area.