The CoastView project: Developing video-derived Coastal State Indicators in support of coastal zone management

This contribution outlines the philosophy and procedures adopted in a major European research project focused on the development of video systems in support of coastal zone management. The CoastView project has developed video-derived Coastal State Indicators (CSIs) that directly facilitate management decisions. Coastal State Indicators are defined here as, “A reduced set of issue-related parameters that can simply, adequately and quantitatively describe the dynamic-state and evolutionary trends of a coastal system”. The process of defining useful CSIs involves close interaction between coastal managers, scientists and policy makers. Even with frequent formal discussions and colloquia between these parties the process of defining useful indicators frequently fails. An approach [Van Koningsveld, M., 2003. Matching specialist knowledge with end-user needs. PhD Thesis, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, 173 p.] is described in this paper which guarantees the effectiveness of the resulting CSIs, and enhances the communication process between scientist and coastal managers. Some practical examples of the frame of reference are given by way of illustration and a detailed description is given of the procedure adopted within the CoastView project for defining and evaluating CSIs. The philosophies and methodologies used during the three year CoastView project have proved successful and provide a valuable template on which to base future research projects focussing on end-user oriented research.