IEC/ISO Bowtie analysis of marine legislation: A case study of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

ICES Working Group on Marine Planning and Coastal Zone Management (WGMPCZM) terms of reference are based on a long history of work and issues from the membership of the group. In 2003, ICES Study Group on Information Needs for Coastal Zone Management (ICES, 2003) recommended that decision-support systems, as applied in decision-making for the establishment of aquaculture farms, be applied more generally for the coastal zone. The following year, the study group recommended establishing a working group on coastal zone management to keep abreast of scientific developments in the coastal zone, in addition to requirements for sustainable uses and management of the coastal zone (ICES, 2004). Although progress was made in terms of information and management tools for integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), the newly formed Working Group on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (WGICZM) recognized the need for frameworks and processes to integrate and evaluate human impacts in the coastal zone in light of the EU Water Framework Directive (ICES, 2005). The need for such a framework carried through from that point onward with the addition of risk characterization as work was progressing on the development of indicators (ICES, 2006, 2007, 2008). In 2009, WGICZM started to examine risk-based, decision-making processes within the context of advancing integrated evaluation of human impacts and governance (ICES, 2009, 2010) within an ecosystem-based and ecosystem service context.