Coastal and Marine Management

Coastal and marine management examines how governments, communities, and industries can coordinate their activities across shared ocean and shoreline spaces without degrading the ecosystems those activities depend on. Because the sea is used simultaneously for shipping, fishing, energy production, conservation, and tourism, decisions made in one sector routinely affect others, making integrated frameworks like marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management essential tools for reducing conflict and cumulative harm. A central challenge is translating broad international commitments—such as the Sustainable Development Goals and emerging blue economy policies—into enforceable, locally legitimate governance arrangements that meaningfully include coastal communities alongside commercial and state actors. Researchers are actively working to improve methods for assessing cumulative ecological impacts across overlapping uses and to understand what institutional conditions make cross-sectoral ocean governance actually stick in practice.

Works

125,644

Total citations

628,421

Keywords

Marine Spatial PlanningEcosystem-Based ManagementIntegrated Coastal ManagementOcean GovernanceBlue EconomyCumulative Impacts