Scottish Government

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CENTRAL RESEARCH UNIT

Countryside and Natural Heritage Research ProgrammeResearch Findings No. 20

Review of Integration among Plans for the Coast in Scotland: An Analysis of the SCF Coastal Plans Inventory

Arup Scotland
Brady Shipman Martin

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Main Findings

• The level of integration amongst the "first rank" plans is substantial. Integration and cross-referencing of policies/strategies across the other plans is relatively less obvious.
• All authorities and agencies are conscious of the need for co-ordination and meaningful participation across all sectors.
• The presence of voluntary initiatives assists in the development of a long-term strategic vision for coastal management. Findings indicate that in the absence of these fora, plans/strategies tend to be more short-term focused and potentially neglect the coast.
• There is a need for more up front public consultation and participation techniques including 'planning for real' in the preparation of ICZM plans.
• While the EU principles and best practice are reflected in ICZM plans generally there is a risk that these may not be understood or implemented in those areas that do not have any fora or specific coastal strategies.
• There is an absence of any conscious synchronisation of time scales and cycles in the overall plan making/review process. Until this begins to happen integration of plans and strategies will continue to be spasmodic.
• All parties appear to subscribe to the concept of sustainable development. However the effort toward sustainable development is primarily driven by the environmental side of the balance sheet.

The Study Context

The Scottish Coastal Forum (SCF) has developed a database of plans and strategies that relate to, or have an implication for, the management of Scotland's coast. The aim of the inventory is to record all documented planning activities being undertaken which are considered to have an impact on the coast.

While developing the Inventory, the SCF recognised the need for research into the extent to which the current coastal planning activities are integrated, i.e. consistent and influenced by other plans and policies. The aim of the research study was to analyse whether integration is demonstrated or considered through the plans and policy documents prepared by those participating in coastal management type activities.

The EU Demonstration Programme on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) resulted in several relevant documents that identified the ways in which integration should occur in plans for effective coastal management:

• Horizontal (across organisations)
• Vertical (from national to local)
• Territorial (limits of authority)
• Temporal (development over time)

Following from the Demonstration Programme, a proposed Recommendation concerning ICZM has been prepared. The SCF is developing a national coastal strategy to implement the Recommendation when it is adopted. This research will contribute to the preparation of the strategy, by highlighting the mechanisms used to integrate policy and plans, and identifying where linkages and mechanisms need to be strengthened.

Relationships among Plans and Policies

The first stage of the research project was to evaluate the significance of each plan in relation to influencing the management of the coastal zone. Integration is dependent on:

• Legal status (statutory versus non-statutory)
• "Expected" degree of influence between sectors
• Date of publication and preparation cycles

An analysis was made of the linkages between plans from a statutory and non-statutory view. This was based on knowledge of the plan hierarchy in Scotland. It was noted that the core for management of the coastal zone is currently based around development planning.

An analysis was made into the expected level of integration between plans, based on the premise that some plans would be expected to show more integration than others, due to either statutory obligations or importance in management of coastal activities. This lead to the determination of Rank 1, 2 and 3 plans, with Rank 1 plans expected to show the highest level of integration of plans and policy. This could then be compared to the situation found in Scotland.

Finally, it is recognised that the plan preparation cycles would ideally be optimised to deliver integration between plans. This was compared to the actual planning cycles discovered in the case studies.

From this work, a series of search areas was adopted, to focus on the efficacy of the ICZM process and framework in Scotland, and therefore the effectiveness of the mechanisms to deliver plans and policies for coastal management. These areas were as follows:

• The Completeness or Comprehensiveness of Plans and Management
• The Quality of Output - both in approach to Best Practice and the EU Principles and in Innovation and Creativity
• Level of Participation and Consensus and techniques used to achieve this level

The Case Studies

Four case studies were chosen to reduce the number of plans to be examined. The case studies were chosen based on a variety of distinctions, including:

• The type, number and coverage of plans
• The character of the area, e.g. urban/rural
• The range of sectoral interests
• Presence of a coastal management initiative

Four case studies were chosen: Cromarty Firth, Orkney Islands, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Coast and Firth of Clyde. These represent what is thought to be the widest range of circumstances for ICZM implementation in Scotland, from areas with well-established coastal initiatives, to those with none.

The Assessment of Integration

With regard to relationships between plans, the research suggested that the level of integration between the first rank plans was high, but the main comment was that the system for integrating policy is not particularly transparent. All of the authors of the plans studied subscribe to sustainable development, but this appears to be driven by the environmental side, with poor representation of economic and social development. Whilst plans undoubtedly exist, there is little evidence in the documents studied that the business sector is formally engaging in the ICZM process. This could be seen as a weakness in delivering ICZM.

Integration requires a co-ordinated effort across all sectors. It has been noted that there is a lack of community participation in the preparation of many plans. This in part may be attributed to a lack of awareness of ICZM, but community involvement is seen as a key element of ICZM delivery on the ground. There is ample evidence of ICZM delivery from local authorities, which are conscious of the need for co-ordination and meaningful participation. However, ICZM would benefit from a greater effort to include the varied perspectives of all interested parties.

The coastal initiatives or fora contribute to the development of a more co-ordinated approach to ICZM, and are an important influence on policy. The fora are essential facilitators in the participatory process and for a long-term vision for the coast. They will become more influential in disseminating the EU principles on ICZM and best practice.

The development planning process has been shown to provide the key documents in delivering ICZM at the present time, but are limited in their remit. An ICZM plan fulfils this role, by drawing together several interests with equal weight. Plans for the coast often have a fragmented approach to plan preparation, and often are of short-term vision, therefore ICZM plans must consider the best plan preparation cycle to take into account when determining their review cycle. Integration also relies on an understanding of some quite complex concepts, and as such would benefit from being comprehensible to the lay person.

Scotland is developing a co-ordinated approach to ICZM, and would benefit from a national strategy.

Recommendations

In light of this review of the case study areas, the following recommendations were made:

• A National Strategy for ICZM should be prepared to act as both a co-ordination mechanism and a means of guidance regarding methodology for ICZM.
• The EU principles and best practice should be clearly transposed through a National Strategy for ICZM to provide assistance to the ICZM process at the local level.
• An accurate ICZM baseline for Scotland, against which future ICZM performance can be monitored, should be established.
• A set of headline and core indicators for ICZM, not only to gauge integration between plan policies but to track performance of the entire ICZM process, should be developed.
• Consideration should be given to the cycle of plan preparation and publication in relation to ICZM plan preparation and its relationship to other plans in the Initiative area. An ideal scenario would have the synchronisation of plan preparation to secure integration.
• Continued support should be given to NPPG 13 as a valuable tool in classifying the coast and also as a resource in the preparation of plans and strategies and on wider management issues in the coastal zone.
• Wider dissemination of information on coastal issues should be encouraged with greater availability of plans and strategies relating to the coast together with promotion of more public participation in their preparation.

About this Study

ArupScotland, in association with Brady Shipman Martin, undertook the analysis between June 2001 and March 2002. The study was a desk-based review of the most up-to-date plans and strategies for the coast, focussing on four case study areas: Cromarty Firth, Orkney Islands, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Coast and Firth of Clyde. Discussions were also held with an officer with responsibility for coastal issues within each of the case study areas. The report comprises of a qualitative review of integration, based on the representation of comparable policies between documents, and a review of the mechanisms used to integrate policy. As such, it is a snapshot of coastal planning at the present moment.