Thematic Network Conference: The Socio Economic Impacts on Coastal Zones and their Evaluation in a Context of Integrated Coastal Zone Management, 12th – 13th March 2007. Venice, Italy

The conference is part of the activities of the thematic network “Multifunctionality and Valuation” within ENCORA, the European Platform for sharing knowledge and experience in coastal science, policy and practice.
European coastal zones are subjected to considerable pressure from different types of impacts. The integrated management of coastal zones aims at sorting out the conflicts over the use and allocation of coastal and marine resources. Decision makers are thus confronted with values and processes coming from different contexts and presented in different languages, measures and criteria.
New tools and strategies are needed in order to deal with different values and to achieve a shared decision-making process.
This conference provides an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss new tools and approaches, giving an overview on the state of the art of the valuation of impacts in the context of integrated coastal zone management in Europe. The conference themes include:

Evaluation of impacts

• Land use changes
• Tourism, water-based leisure activities
• Fisheries and aquaculture
• Off-shore power generation
• Industrial activities

Integration between different values and conflicts

• Tools for economic valuation of natural resources
• Multidisciplinary decision support