Spatial Planning in Coastal Zone and Maritime Areas Vjosa

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Spatial Planning in Coastal Zone and
Maritime Areas Vjosa Narta pilot
project ECAT Tirana
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• Basic Facts about the pilot project

• Located to the south of Albania.
• The area represents an important lagoon in the
  coast (Narta lagoon)
• Main uses are agriculture, salt production,
  fishing, tourism

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• Interested Groups

• Vlora municipality, district council, Narta
  community
• Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Water
  Administration, Ministry of Public Affairs,
  Transport and Telecommunications, Ministry of
  Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports,
  inter-ministerial Council for Territorial
  Development.
• Non-governmental organizations active in local
  development, tourism promotion, environmental and
  cultural heritage protection
• Business community (salt production, fisheries,
  industry, tourism
• Inhabitants of coastal area

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• Workshops and meetings

In the first national Spatial Planning and
Maritime Areas workshop the PlanCoast project was
presented to different target groups
stakeholders, including central and local
planning authorities, representatives from
universities and research institutions.
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• Meetings with experts

• Several round table and seminars of experts
  stakeholders have been organized by ECAT Tirana
  in order to
• assess availability and quality of data
• present findings
• draw conclusions

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• Workshops and meetings

With the kind assistance and excellent
presentation of Mr. Bernhard Heinrichs
, ECAT Tirana organized on Sep. 6, 2007, wide
participation national seminar on Spatial
Planning within ICZM in Albania, to introduce
principles and practices of spatial
planning. This very successful participatory
seminar maximized the understanding of the links
between spatial planning and ICZM. In addition it
showed that most of the stakeholders experts
involved acknowledged the conflicts in the area
and were able to formulate them clearly
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Activities completed

• A review of the literature, data, and documents
  was carried out.
• A review updating of the previous management
  plan of the area, completed three years ago, was
  taken into consideration.
• A methodology was developed that set out the
  principles and methods for the implementation of
  the pilot project
• The methodology was based on the following
  principles
• - a sound management of scientific
  data
• - the ecosystem approach
• - the participatory approach
• It defined a model framework for local ICZM plans
  providing the opportunity to
• -update the data of management plan
• -generate the new data for the area
• -revise the certain principals for the
  management of the area using the tools and
  concepts of spatial planning

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• Activities completed

• A questionnaire was prepared to
• establish how far offshore and inland the
  boundaries for the area should lie
• whether there are specific studies, surveys and
  analysis to be carried out in the short term to
  support Narta planning
• establish a rank for the functions defined for
  the area
• The questionnaire asked to list three main
  problems for Narta Lagoon management and
  respective solutions and stakeholders that should
  be involved in planning process
• The questionnaire was completed by local
  stakeholders along with the group of related most
  qualified Albanian experts.

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• Activities completed

• Reports were prepared to understand processes
  that impact on the area
• Shehu, A., E. Dindi. Some Considerations of the
  Factors Affecting the Evolution of Vjosa-Narta
  Coastline.
• Lame, S. Dynamics of the Coastal Zone and Natural
  and Human Impacts.
• Lushaj, Sh. Identification of Mutual Movement
  Land-Sea and Degradation Phenomena. Planning of
  Measurement related to Development and
  Protection of Land Space of the area.
• Eftimi, R. Ground Water.
• Leka, Sh. Spatial Planning Vision for the Narta
  Region.
• Beqiraj S. Lagoon and Marine Benthos.
• The findings of the reports formed the basis for
  a single report that set out a vision for the
  area, identifying potential sites for appropriate
  development and uses.

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• Functions Ranking List of the Area

Functions Weight
Tourism and recreation 3
Habitat for wildlife 2.66
Shoreline anchoring and dissipation of erosive forces 2.5
Extraction of mineral resources (salt) 2.5
Urban development 2.5
Flood storage and desynchronization 2.25
Sediment trapping 2.25
Food chain support 2.25
Heritage value 2.25
Ground water recharge 2
Ground water discharge 2
Habitat for fisheries/fishing 2
Harvest of commercial timber and crops 2
Grazing 1.37
Nutrient retention and removal 1.3
According to the impact and the importance on the
ecosystem, a list of functions was prepared
taking into consideration that the wetlands
occupy the most significant portion of the area.
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• Facts Findings

Vjosa Narta is a highly dynamic area where the
shoreline has often changed dramatically. A
notable displacement of 310 m has been observed
during the last few decades. The superposition
of the data extracted from maps of the years
1938, 1985, or 2005 and satellite images produced
the temporal and spatial variation of the
shoreline.
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• In this particular coastal area sediments are
  loose and considerably thick, therefore the
  action of the waves on them is significant
• Geologically, the region continues to subside
  causing the sea to encroach upon the land.

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Reduction of the sediments due to creation of
reservoirs

• Some conflicts of uses in the area

Cows on the beach-beach as the grazing area
Cars on the beach-beach as a parking area
Aggregate extraction along rivers, beaches and
dunes
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Dunes are few kilometers long, 30 m wide, and 3
to 4 m high running parallel to the shoreline
directly inland from the beach. Illegal on the
shore are destructing the natural defenses of
vegetation of the dunes
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Some processes on the coast taken into
consideration
Sea encroaching upon the land
The process of salinization has been increasing
during the past 20 years..
Coastal erosion
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• The area shows a variety of natural wetland
  habitats. The lagoon is renowned and ecologically
  important as a breeding site for a number of bird
  species. A review of the literature concerning
  the wetland habitats was carried out.

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Follow up activities planned
Organization of the national conference to
present results and conclusions of the plan coast
project to present SP and ICZM. Presenting
public bodies with the recommendations for using
spatial planning for future distribution of uses
in space. Ensuring that lessons learned from
this exercise be applicable across regional
space. Conclusions
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Lessons learned Eg.   Was successful because...
The ICZM approach was succesfully applied to a
local master plan for a very sensitive coastal
area, including spatial planning of the whole
area Could be more successful if... The
methodology has been tested with an Expert
Group, but such local plan would be tested in a
community-based process, involving local
stakeholders in definition of functions and
consequent spatial planning of the area. Final
ICZM local plan should be presented for
discussion and legal recognition to all Local
Authorities interested in Narta area. The hardest
part of the work was... The longest part of the
work was... In both cases, involvement of
different specialists, with very different
scientific background and languages, for
integration of functional analysis and evaluation
of the area What surprised us the most
was... All different specialists, after deep
discussion and analysis, were really capable to
connect their specific work and surveys to
functional analysis and ranking, and to the
related spatial planning We are particularily
proud of... Definition of ICZM methodological
approach for local plans
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• Next time we would do different....
• - more specialists involved for preliminary
  complete area profiling
• - direct community involvement from the beginning
  in functional analysis
• - more direct integration with data collection
  and management by means of GIS tools
• We recommend other planners that...
• ICZM approach for local plans should be adopted
  also in absence of regional/national guidelines
•  Discussion points
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• Comparing with the PlanCoast Handbook messages
•          What has been confirmed
• Everything (but the below reported)
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•          What has not been confirmed
• Major importance to ICZM local approach 
•          New suggestions?
• (specific for my country, etc.)
•  Put attention (and resources, both human and
  financial) on
• data collection and management (GIS coordination
  at central, regional and local levels)