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Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-143). Also available via the Internet.

The coast is subject to increasing pressure from a multitude of often competing users. Coastal managers are faced with the challenge of balancing the distribution and activities of users. They must take into account user conflicts, environmental impacts, socioeconomic benefits, and the voices of the coastal community. On another stream. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are being heralded as decision support tools. These tools range from inventory warehouses to dedicated Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) to impending Collaborative Spatial Decision Making Systems (CSDMS) for decision-making groups. This research investigated the marriage of these two fields, coastal management and GIS, through the development and pilot implementation of a Coastal SDSS for multiple-use management. The investigation was pursued by exploring the component parts of a Coastal SDSS: (1) the decision makers and process within which they function; (2) the analysis upon which decisions are made; and (3) the data which are analysed and in themselves contribute to an understanding of the decision problem and solution. Information and observations for each of these components were gathered and woven together from five sources: (1) literature survey; (2) a two-phase questionnaire of coastal decision makers; (3) interviews of participants of a resource management multi-stakeholder process; (4) non-participant observation of an ongoing coastal management process; and (5) two workshops involving the pilot implementation of a Coastal SDSS to evaluate its effectiveness for group-based coastal management. The workshops, involving members from eight stakeholder groups, formed part of a current coastal management initiative in Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island. The pilot Coastal SDSS was programmed in Arclnfo™. It included the development of position analysis and multi-criteria analysis models accessed from a customised interface. The results from the workshops were assimilated with previous findings into design and implementation specifications of a Coastal SDSS. Twenty-one specifications are made for the development and implemention of a Coastal SDSS under categories of: 1) format; 2) decision making; 3) analysis; and 4) data. A chauffeur-driven system is advocated as the preferred format of implementation directed by a GIS facilitator and GIS analyst. Of critical importance to the successful implementation of a Coastal SDSS is adequate preparation of technical accessibility for participants. The decision making approach of a Coastal SDSS should lie in the generation and evaluation of alternatives with an emphasis on graphic communication and dynamic decision making. The analytical component of a Coastal SDSS must balance quantitative analysis with qualitative, and deterministic with interactive. Analytical specifications recommended include capability analysis, spatial coincidence, multi-criteria analysis, consensus evaluation, alternative evaluation, environmental modelling and generic GIS functionality. The points of emphasis for the data component include a taxonomy of coastal inventory with particular reference to coastal use and administrative framework, representation of the coast as a continuous transition zone between marine and terrestrial environments, cartographic communication geared towards decision making, and a metadata strategy for managing data quality. This research concludes that Coastal SDSS can fill a void in and enhance coastal management particularly with respect to supporting communication and objective spatial analytical methods. However, decision makers were cautious in embracing a central role for Coastal SDSS. Their concerns can be addressed by involving the full range of coastal decision makers in the design and development of Coastal SDSS particularly through experimental research design and by incorporating GIS into coastal management curricula. / Graduate

As a pilot study into questionnaire investigation of beach user opinions and perceptions, a survey was conducted of users of four beaches (Southerndown, Nash, Ogmore and Llantwit), at the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, Wales. Beach perceptions were assessed in terms of socio-demographics, psychological parameters (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and related to the existing beach environment. Few changes to general facility provision could be recommended, but a number of management recommendations were made. Beach user gender, socio-economic status, planned length of stay and anxiety/neuroticism level were shown by discriminant function analysis to influence beach selection. A beach rating scheme was developed, based on a novel beach user questionnaire/checklist system. This questionnaire was used to interview users (n = 859) at 23 randomly selected Welsh beaches with regard to preferences/priorities for a wide range of beach aspects. Questionnaire data analysis generated scores which could be applied to checklists appropriate to other beaches of various commercialisation levels. Seventy Welsh beaches were assessed, producing scores from 39% (Porthcawl - Trecco Bay) to 69% (Broadhaven, S. Pembs. and Pembray). Landscape was assessed by panel judgements of a video panorama sequence, with scores for this aspect ranging from 19% (Prestatyn) to 80% (Broadhaven, S. Pembs.). The rating scheme took into account a larger number of beach aspects (47) than any beach award/recommendation in common use in the UK. It successfully took account of differing beach user preferences/priorities for various beach aspects and also the differing beach user demands at commercialised as opposed to undeveloped beaches. Many differences in beach user preferences/priorities were observed according to differences in stated preferred beach type, many of which could be important for management. In addition, pilot scale studies were undertaken at the Costa Dorada, Spain and on the Turkish Aegean Coast. For the latter, beach rating was also carried out. Future studies aiming to use stated perceptions, preferences and priorities of beach users to guide management should take account of possible influences such as beach user familiarity, expectation, cultural background and past experience. Much further work is required to develop beach user questionnaires to investigate aspects of beach user perception. Future rating exercises based on beach user preferences/priorities should take account of the need for beaches to meet minimum standards for the most important (as identified by beach users), beach aspects, in order to achieve a high rating or grade. The limitations of beach user surveys in terms of sampling difficulties need to be addressed. For valid management decision support, other stakeholders such as residents, tourist trade workers and those choosing not to visit beaches in particular areas need to be reached using other investigative methodologies.

The coast of Sweden’s largest island, Gotland, is a place of conflicting interests. There is both the desire to preserve nature values and to develop the island’s tourism industry and rural areas. The planning and management of the coast are vital and faces the challenge of balancing these interests. In this study, personnel from the municipality and the county administrative board were interviewed in order to describe the status of the coastal zone management on Gotland. The results show that the shore protection and the comprehensive plan are important tools in the management of the coast. Rural areas that can be developed (LIS-areas) are identified by the municipality with regard to the tourism industry as well as ecological sustainability. However, further coastal zone management is not established, and there is a lack of tools to help management, such as integrated coastal zone management (ICZM). Furthermore, the newly proposed shore protection legislation causes uncertainty for the future of the coast. This study finds that there are, however, parts of ICZM in the planning, such as collaboration and long-term planning. However, areas such as knowledge on the coast and clear guidelines for who is responsible can be developed by implementing ICZM. ICZM is perceived as a potentially valuable tool for the coastal zone on Gotland and as a sustainable way to continue to find a balance between these conflicting interests. / Gotlands kust är en plats med motstridiga intressen, såsom att bevara naturvärden och önskan att utveckla öns besöksnäring och landsbygdsområden. Planeringen och förvaltningen av kusten är viktig och står inför utmaningen att balansera dessa intressen. I den här studien intervjuades Region Gotland och Länsstyrelsen för att beskriva statusen för kustzonsförvaltningen på Gotland. Studiens resultat visar att strandskyddet och översiktsplanen är viktiga verktyg för förvaltningen av kusten. Landsbygdsområden som kan utvecklas (LIS-områden) identifieras med hänsyn till besöksnäringen samt ekologisk hållbarhet och klimatförändringar. Men övrig kustzonsförvaltning är inte etablerad och det saknas verktyg som hjälper förvaltningen, till exempel en integrerad kustzonsplanering (IKZP). Det föreslagna strandskyddet skapar även osäkerhet för kustens framtid. Denna studie finner dock att det finns delar av IKZP i planeringen, till exempel samarbete och långsiktig planering. Områden som kunskap om kusten och tydliga riktlinjer för vem som är ansvarig kan dock utvecklas genom att implementera IKZP. IKZP upplevs som ett potentiellt värdefullt verktyg för kustzonen på Gotland och som ett hållbart sätt att fortsätta hitta en balans mellan dessa motstridiga intressen.

In Australia, Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICM) is the policy framework adopted by government to manage the coastal zone. Amongst other principles, ICM contains an explicit mandate to include local communities in the management of the coastal zone. In Australia, the Coastcare program emerged in response to international acceptance of the need to involve local communities in the management of the coastal zone. This dissertation is a critical cultural investigation of the Coastcare program to discover how the program and the coastal zone generally, is understood and negotiated by three volunteer groups in SE Queensland. There is a paucity of data surrounding the actual experiences of Coastcare volunteers. This dissertation begins to fill this gap in our knowledge of local community involvement in coastal management. My dissertation considers the culture of Coastcare and broadly, community participation initiatives. Coastcare participants, government policymakers, environmental scientists, etc bring to their encounter a specific ‘way of seeing’ the coast – a cultural framework – which guides their actions, ideas and priorities for the coastal zone. These cultural frameworks are established and maintained in the context of unequal relations of power and knowledge. The discourses of environmental science and economics – as evidenced in the chief ICM policy objective, Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) – are powerful knowledges in the realm of community participation policy. This arrangement has serious consequences for what governments and experts can expect to achieve via community participation programs. In short, the quest for ‘power-sharing’ with communities and ‘meaningful participation’ is impeded by dominant scientific and economic cultures which act to marginalise and discredit the cultures of communities (and volunteers). Ironically enough, the lack of consideration of these deeper relations of power and knowledge means that the very groups (such as policymakers, environmental scientists, etc) who actively seek the participation of local communities, contribute disproportionately to the relative failure of community participation programs. At the very least, as those in a position of power, policymakers and associated experts do little to enhance communication with local communities. To this situation add confusion wrought by changes in the delivery of the Coastcare program and a lack of human and financial resources. From this perspective, the warm and fuzzy sentiment of Coastcare can be understood as the ‘Coastcare of neglect’. However, the emergence of community participation as ‘legitimate’ in environmental policymaking indicates a fissure in the traditional power relations between communities and experts. Indeed the entry of ‘community participation policy’ is relatively new territory for the environmental sciences. It is this fissure which I seek to explore and encourage via the application of a cultural studies framework which offers another ‘way of seeing’ community participation in coastal and marine management and thereby, offers avenues to improve relations between communities and experts. My fieldwork reveals a fundamental mismatch between the cultural frameworks which communities bring to the coast and those frameworks embodied and implemented by the Coastcare program. Upon closer examination, it is apparent that the Coastcare program (and community participation programs generally) are designed to introduce local ‘lay’ communities to environmental science knowledge. Local coastal cultures are relegated to the personal and private realm. An excellent example of this is the scientifically oriented ‘eligible areas for funding’ of the Coastcare program. The volunteers consulted for this project emphasized their motivation in terms of ‘maintaining the natural beauty of the coast’ and ‘protecting a little bit of coast from the rampant development of the coastal zone’. Their motivations were largely the antithesis of ESD. They understood their actions as thwarting the negative impacts of coastal development – this occurred within a policy framework which accepted development as fait d’accompli. Australia’s nation of coastal dwellers may not know a lot about ‘coastal ecologies’ but they do know the coast in other ways. Community knowledge of the coast can be largely accounted for in the phrase, ‘Australian beach culture’. Serious consideration of Australian beach culture in environmental policy is absent. The lack of attention to this central tenet of the Australian way of life is because, as a concept and in practice, beach culture lacks the ‘seriousness’ and objectivity of environmental science knowledge – it is about play, hedonism, holidays, spirituality, emotion and fun. The stories (including Indigenous cultural heritage) which emerge when Australians are asked about their ‘beach cultural knowledge’ – historical and contemporary experiences of the Australian coast – await meaningful consideration by those interested in communicating with Australian communities living on the coast. This ‘cultural geography’ is an avenue for policymakers to better communicate and engage with Australian communities in their quest to increase participation in, or motivate interest in community coastal management programs.

Thesis (M.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-28). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2009. / Title from Web page (viewed on Feb. 3, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-28).

Thesis (M.R.M.)--Simon Fraser University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-116).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2005 . / Principal faculty advisor: Biliana Cicin-Sain, College of Marine Studies. Includes bibliographical references.