A systems approach framework for coastal management and its application in practice

Considered as one of the most productive systems worldwide, supporting a wide array of habitats and species, coastal ecosystems are also important drivers of human wellbeing and development (Costanza et al. 1997). With more than 60% of the world’s population living at the coast (Turner et al. 2014), people depend on a healthy and fully functioning ecosystem to provide goods and services (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). However, to cope with population growth, the increasing demand for ecosystems goods and services has led, in general, to uncontrolled and unsustainable use of natural resources (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010), resulting in the environmental degradation and loss of coastal ecosystems (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). While initially carried out in a sectorial way (managing different pressures individually), the complex multitude of anthropogenic uses both from land and sea requires that the management of coastal ecosystems is undertaken in a holistic and integrative approach (managing several pressured inclusively) (Apitz et al. 2006).