A unique resource

SAIL has pioneered the use of indicators for measuring sustainable development in coastal zones. The partnership elaborated a precise methodology for measuring 27 social, economic and environmental indicators and has developed a standardised ‘indicator fact sheet’ to display the results. The evidence provided by the indicators is an essential component for effective coastal and marine planning and management. Taken together, the results assist practitioners to answer four crucial questions:

• Is the coast different to its hinterland?
• If so, in what ways is it different?
• Are those differences significant enough to require separate coastal policies and management regimes?
• Where separate and specific policies for coastal areas are in place, are they working?

The set of 27 indicators developed by SAIL has been adopted by the EU Integrated Coastal Zone Management Expert Group and recommended by the European Commission to all coastal Member States as an invaluable tool for measuring the extent to which coastal zones are moving towards, or away from, a more sustainable coast, and at what pace.

The indicators have been calculated for the SAIL region and published together in The State of the Southern North Sea Coastal Region; an indicators-based approach to measuring the sustainable development of the Southern North Sea coastal region (2006).

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