Integrated coastal zone management: bridging the land-water divide

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The coastal zone is an area of high ecological complexity and productivity given its intrinsic connectivity between habitats and processes of freshwater and marine aquatic ecosystems. It is also an area of complex anthropogenic interactions with variable social, economic, and cultural components. Furthermore, it is the zone where aquatic ecosystems are the most vulnerable to cumulative pressures caused by human activities of various types and intensity, where management lies within a complex jurisdictional backdrop. Thus, the coastal zone is a complex mosaic of variable zones of influences and ecosystem component vulnerabilities along the landwater interface. Canada is a maritime nation. It is bordered by the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, it has the world’s longest coastline (at ca. 244 000 km), and also borders interior freshwater ”seas”, the Great Lakes. Eight out of our ten provinces border oceans, as do our three Territories. Given this backdrop, integrated coastal management seems a formidable challenge, but it is possible and it is critical that we do it strategically and efficiently with the best available information at present. Under the Health of the Oceans Initiative, four Centres of Expertise have been established within the Oceans Sector of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in order to better understand and address national integrated coastal and oceans management issues. An overview of the objectives of the CoE on Coastal Management is presented with a focused update on its efforts in the development of ecosystem-based approaches, in relation to cumulative effects, and risk analysis decision-making tools.