Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in Practice: A Systematic Literature Review of ICZM Case Study Applications

From its conception, ICZM has lain at the interface of science, policy and practice; this complexity can be addressed with place-based applications in local case studies. To support coastal decision-making towards sustainability, scientists developed and applied diverse methodologies. This research investigated ICZM research application, following the PRISMA guidelines; the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) included 134 case studies from a Scopus search of 502 results. This SLR examines location, approaches, project rationale, applied methodologies, and stakeholders’ involvement adopted across case studies. The Euro-Mediterranean region is the main territory of case study application, as expected from the support of the ICZM Protocol of the Barcelona Convention and the EU ICZM strategy. From the reviewed literature, the discussion focuses on the involvement of stakeholders, the consideration of climate-change impacts, and fisheries management within ICZM. This research proposes further research to assess the potential of the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) method for ICZM applications based on Local Ecological Knowledge.