Dual adaptive cycles in implementing integrated coastal management

Abstract

Despite the place-based nature of integrated coastal management (ICM) implementation and the importance of considering country-specific knowledge, a number of uniformities in ICM implementation have been distinguished. In this paper, the theoretical validation of a place-based ICM implementation model developed for South Africa’s sector-based governance system is undertaken using predefined theoretically based evaluation criteria derived from such uniformities. Using an incremental, adaptive research process, the original place-based model is evaluated and then refined to enhance its theoretical validity. During the refinement of the implementation model, two interdependent yet distinctive cycles, the resource cycle and the actor cycle, emerged. The dual cycles in ICM implementation represent the process of inclusive ecosystem-based resource management (the resource cycle) capacitated by a supporting network of actors (the actor cycle). The new model incorporates insights from the recent literature on adaptive management in the fields of integrated water management and social-ecological systems into ICM theory and practice. Further, the learning-by-doing process that characterises ICM implementation is expanded by connecting place-based design and theoretically based learning.