Criteria for evaluating the design of implementation models for integrated coastal management

Abstract

Despite the emphasis placed on the contextual nature of integrated coastal management (ICM) implementation in the literature, many uniformities are encountered in ICM implementation worldwide. In this article the tangled threads of ICM practice are unravelled and a theoretically founded set of criteria for evaluating the design of ICM implementation models is provided. First, paradigms in integrated environmental management (IEM) implementation, the broader domain within which ICM practice is nested, are characterized in terms of their key concepts. Next, the paradigms are used as a mechanism to distill uniformities in ICM practice as reported in review articles. Finally a set of fourteen building blocks against which the scientific credibility of contextual, country-specific ICM implementation models can be validated, is generated by translating the theory-based characterization into evaluation criteria readily accessible to practitioners.