Combining Marine Ecology and Economy to Roadmap the Integrated Coastal Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Bruno Hay Mele, Luca Russo and Domenico D’Alelio
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Bruno Hay Mele: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale, I-80121 Naples, Italy
Luca Russo: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale, I-80121 Naples, Italy
Domenico D’Alelio: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Villa Comunale, I-80121 Naples, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 16, 1-21

Abstract: Integrated coastal management (ICM) relies on the inclusion of economic issues within marine ecology. To assess the progress of this integration, we applied topic modelling and network analysis to explore the pertinent literature (583 Isi-WoS, and 5459 Scopus papers). We classified the topics of interest (i.e., concepts, approaches, and sectors) that combined ecological and economic issues within marine science, we aggregated these topics in fields pertinent to ICM, and tracked the knowledge-exchange between these fields by using an information-flow network. Main findings were: (i) the high trans-disciplinary fashion of studies about marine protection and of those about commercial fisheries, (ii) the weak interaction between studies focusing on potential biohazards and those about environmental management, (iii) the isolation, in the overall information-flow, of studies about ecotourism and aquaculture. We included in a roadmap all the integration routes we detected within ICM, based on the combination of ecological and economic issues. We conclude that, to improve integration, ICM should: (i) Exploit marine protection as a bridge between ecological and economic concepts and approaches, and between maritime economy sectors, (ii) employ systems ecology to pursue trans-disciplinary investigations, (iii) complement systems ecology with citizen science by means of inclusive economic initiatives, such as ecotourism.

Keywords: coastal resilience; ecological economics; integrated coastal management; marine ecology; marine/maritime economy; socio-ecological systems; network science; topic modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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