Socio-economic indicators and integrated coastal management

The need to better understand the linkages and interdependencies of socio-economic and coastal environmental dynamics has taken on a more deliberate role in the development and assessment of Integrated Coastal Management world-wide. The analysis and establishment of indicator-driven programs to assess change in coastal and watershed systems have increasingly moved to stress socio-economic forcings and impacts. This article serves to review the need for and provide an assessment of important frameworks designed to foster such integration. It argues that the evolution of the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework, now in broad use, provides an essential contribution.