EUCC has been instrumental in the development of an indicator to show the progress that is being made in the implementation of ICZM in Member States. We have been closely collaborating with the European Topic Centre – Terrestrial Environment (ETC-TE) to develop an indicator set that will allow member states to determine the extent to which they are implementing ICZM. This indicator set, used alongside sustainable development indicators, will also enable coastal managers and authorities to establish whether the ICZM approach is really leading to an improvement of the coast.
The Indicator set was drawn up at the behest of the EU ICZM Group of Experts which wished to see the use, by Member States, of comparable indicators to assess both the state of the coast and the degree to which ICZM is being implemented. As a result a Working Group on Indicators and Data was established which invited ETC-TE – and thence EUCC – to elaborate the indicator set needed. The Progress Indicator set was approved at the 3rd meeting of the Group of Experts in April, 2004. Member States were also asked to test the Indicator set and report back. Alongside this political endorsement, there has been scientific recognition: the methodology has been published: Pickaver et. al. Ocean & Coastal Management 47 (2004) 449-462.

The Progress Marker Set has now been extensively tested in Europe. The EUCC has conducted tests in Wales, as part of the Corepoint Interreg IIIC project, and in Germany & Lithuania (for HELCOM) during the last six months . Other tests have been conducted in UK, Spain, France and Belgium. The comments received during this testing period have been used to revise the Indicator Set to make it even more user friendly, especially to those who do not have English as their first language. The original set of 26 actions has been broadened to 31 e.g. to take into account more exclusively marine issues; these actions have been grouped into 4 phases rather than the previous five. A set of Guidelines for the use of the Indicator Set with a potted history now accompanies the methodology.

Work has now begun to further refine the methodology. The ENCORA project will allow aspects of the Progress Indicator set to be further defined as there is a desire to move from a simple binary response (horizontally) as well as add sub-actions (vertically) to provide a tool which is even more meaningful for practitioners and managers. The methodology is also being adapted so that other forms of management may be measured e.g. inter-linked management of rivers and coasts as a single river basin management system. Such management of water resources is called for under the Water Framework Directive.

It is anticipated that the Progress Indicator set will become an established part of the dynamic ICZM process itself. This will mean that it will not be a static methodology but that it, too, will need to change as implementation of ICZM gets more sophisticated. The most common comments from practitioners using the ICZM Progress Indicator set has been that it has explained in a pragmatic way what had seemed to be a rather abstract and theoretical concept. This the positive reaction is very encouraging. It is EUCC’s hope that the Progress Indicator set will be used routinely as an instrument to measure how ICZM is being implemented in Europe. Used alongside sustainability indicators for the coast, it should also determine just how good ICZM is as a management process.

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