Management of the Coastal Zone - conflicts, cooperation and integration

The coastal zone holds an aggregate of users and other vested interests, as well as multiple management bodies. A main problem is, however, the lack of knowledge on natural and social processes on the coast, as well as on management processes. The strateg ic program`s main objective is to describe and analyze processes by which the coastal zone is created, systems of knowledge that act and interact and power relations between them, in order to develop models for planning and management that constitutes the coast as an integrated, yet heterogeneous and manifold object. Three themes are central: Integration between municipal area management and state and county resource management; rights perceptions and authorizations processes; and local knowledge in plann ing and management.