This new project initiative aims to ensure that the integrated management of coastal issues will be sustainable. SUSTAIN (Assessing sustainability and strengthening operational policies) is an INTERREG IVC project that has recently started and the kick-off event took place in the beautiful municipality of Kouklia (Cyprus), one of the partners of the project.

Twelve European partners (all represented in the above photo) will be working together, including eight regional and local authorities under the lead of the Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC) during the coming 3 years.

The key objective of SUSTAIN is to have in place, at the end of three years, a fully implementable POLICY TOOL, applicable for all 22 coastal states of the EU, which will ensure that the integrated management of coastal issues will be both measureable and sustainable. This entails the agreement within the project, of a set of criteria which are readily measurable and which cover both the threats of unsustainable development and the opportunities, provided by a sustainable future, which face all coastal authorities and communities throughout Europe.

SUSTAIN will provide a new way of thinking about sustainable management through the development of a unique set of indicators which incorporate objective quality information and targets related to key aspects of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy viz. nature and biodiversity, carrying capacity, water & environmental quality, climate change and socio-economic aspects. There is currently no way of measuring whether or not any particular coastal activity is leading towards or away from sustainable development. They will be different from the current state-of-the-coast indicators which, although excellent in determining what is happening at the coast in many sectors gives very little indication as to whether those activities are sustainable. The innovation in this project will come from the development of an indicator set designed specifically with sustainability objectives in mind rather than simply looking at the present status of a wide range of different parameters some of which may be related to sustainability but most are not. Sustainability will be achieved whilst maintaining continuous improvement of quality of life along the coastline both for current and for future generations by enabling coastal communities to manage and use their resources efficiently. Using a check-list approach, a series of manageable indicators will be defined which can point to whether the defined parameter is being done sustainably or not by the implementing authority. Once the baseline data has been determined, regular measurements thereafter will show whether policy implementation by the authority is leading to increased sustainable use or otherwise. This is similar to the methodology developed by the Lead Partner for the EU ICZM Working Group on Indicators and Data to measure the implementation of ICZM by Member States, adopted by the European Commission and which is now in use throughout the EU.

Sub-objectives will be:

• to increase the sustainability of partner municipalities through interchange of experience and transfer of practice during the lifetime of the project, as well as beyond, on sustainability issues,
• to draw up a definitive list of sustainability criteria for a coastal future which can be readily implemented,
• to assess the identified sustainability criteria in order that they can be used on a Pan-European scale.

The Local and regional authorities are making efforts to use ICZM planning approaches to lead to sustainable development. A number of actions need to be implemented along the coast to improve sustainability. The criteria for assessing sustainability at the coast which will be developed and tested in SUSTAIN will provide the management policy tool which is very much needed and currently lacking.
“SUSTAIN is an ambitious and comprehensive project that will develop a fully implementable, self-assessment policy tool to measure the extent that sustainable development is being applied in all 22 coastal states of the EU.” said project manager Alan Pickaver. 

“The partners in this exciting project have come together to address the challenges that coastal communities face from issues like climate change, pressure on natural resources and the need for economic, social and cultural well-being by providing a new and innovative tool that can be used by the communities to enable them to live in and manage their own surroundings sustainably.”  said Caroline Salthouse, communications lead partner (external expert for Sefton Council).

A project website is available at www.sustain-eu.net.