From Rio to Johannesburg: The role of coastal GIS

This paper discusses the evolving role of coastal GIS vis à vis: (i) the inputs from the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration, the 2001 Road Map Towards the Implementation of the UN Millennium Declaration, and the 2002 Plan of Implementation of the World Summit of Sustainable Development (WSSD); (ii) the changing approach to integrated coastal management; and (iii) the increasing use of indicators in this field. It concludes by proposing a multi-faced approach embracing the ontological arena (changing coastal reality), the semiotic arena (role of representations) and the hermeneutical arena (production of signifieds from representations). Coastal GIS will increase in effectiveness as science is better able to deal with these arenas contextually.