The PlanCoast project

PlanCoast aim and structure

PlanCoast is an EU INTERREG IIIB CADSES project which aimed to encourage a practical debate on Integrated Maritime Spatial Planning (IMSP) amongst planners and provide hands-on tools for its implementation at various spatial scales. Led by the Mecklenburg–Vorpommern Ministry of Transport, Building and Regional Development (Germany), and running from 2006 to 2008, it brought together spatial planning and environmental departments and responsible regional authorities, from Albania, Bosnia–Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the Ukraine, with the specific aim of providing good practice examples and tools for effective integrated planning in coastal zones and marine areas. The project also sought to raise awareness of the potential benefits of IMSP amongst policy-makers and the planning community.

PlanCoast output

A central output of the project is the PlanCoast Handbook (Schultz-Zehden et al. 2008, download from [1] ), written for planners and other stakeholders involved in maritime planning, ICZM and other forms of marine management. The handbook outlines the purpose and benefits of IMSP and describes several steps that are necessary for implementing IMSP. The handbook is based on contributions from all PlanCoast partners and therefore reflects a wide range of experiences, settings and backgrounds. Although PlanCoast focused on the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea coast, the lessons learned can be applied in other contexts too.

This article summarises the main PlanCoast outcomes.