Project part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund)

The Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme


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The authors are solely responsible for the content of this report. Material included herein does not represent the opinion of the European Community, and the European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of it.
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Legislative Drivers & Sectoral Plan Review of TIDE Estuaries

1b. Methodology

The following work was initially carried out by the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies (IECS) for the Humber Estuary, to develop a working methodology. Templates were then generated to be completed by the other TIDE partners for the remaining three estuaries. The work included:
  • Identifying the key International and European Directives driving environmental management at the national and local estuary level. Provide a brief description of these legislative drivers and indicate how they have been transposed into national legislation for the TIDE estuary countries.
  • Creating schematic frameworks to depict how the EU Directives are implemented at different management levels and the associated key players. The schematics show the implementation at the regional level with the national legislation enacted and which organisations, institutes and expert groups are involved in coordinating the implementation. The second level is the river basin level with the management plans developed and the organisations with advisory input. Finally, the third level is at the estuary management level identifying the specific estuary management plans, management groups and local targets, aims and objectives.
  • Identify the statutory agencies, relevant and competent authorities, and management groups for each estuary, and their areas of responsibility. The legal standing of the management often influences the efficacy of management (statutory vs voluntary basis).
  • Based on the earlier stages, identifying the different sectoral management plans affecting estuary management, including those responding to EU and national drivers and also more specific local drivers which have been adopted through local initiatives in order to address a specific management related issue of an estuary (or perhaps wider legislative gap).  These plans included water quality and management; habitats and species conservation; flood and coastal protection; Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) initiatives; shipping, ports and pollution prevention; and economics and planning. Information is tabulated for each of the four TIDE estuaries, with the lead body and main driver identified. With regard to each plan, fundamental information on the main focus/aim of the plan is provided.  While the report aims to be comprehensive, further concepts, collections of data with certain focus could have been analysed, as they work as management tools within the four estuaries as well.
  • SWOT analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on each of the sectoral management plans for each estuary was carried out to define best practice within the estuary’s management systems. This provides a basic assessment as to whether the management plans ultimately deliver multi-user management, power to enforce, user buy-in, longevity, revision, funding etc.
Compared the four estuaries, highlighting where best practice examples exist, and what strengths can be shared between the TIDE partners and integrated into estuary management best practice deliverables.


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