Integrated Coastal Planning

and Management
in Asian tsunami-affected countries

The information in this article draws on perspectives from a series of country papers formulated for a workshop on Coastal Area Planning and
Management in Asian tsunami-affected countries, (www.fao.org/forestry/site/35734/en). The workshop in question was held in Bangkok,
Thailand, in September 2006 and forms one of a series of UN Food and Agriculture Organisation run workshops in the region addressing the
range of forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, and agriculture problems faced by Asian countries in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

By Robert Kay, Principal of Coastal Zone Management (Australia)

T
he 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
resulted in the widespread
devastation of coastal
communities throughout the region
from a social, environmental and
economic perspective. The huge loss of
life as a result of the tsunami waves was
coupled with catastrophic destruction
of the coastal zone in areas of India,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Areas most affected were generally
those where marginalised members of
the population were concentrated and
unsustainable management practices
were endemic.
Pre-tsunami policy climate and
exacerbation of impacts
A lack of, or poor implementation or
adherence to, policy and legislative
frameworks that support coastal area
management within the region
contributed to the unplanned
development of the coastal zone in the
pre-tsunami era and the suite of
problems with which it is associated.
Key issues leading to poor
implementation and adherence at a
regional level include:
v the low capacity of affected
countries to participate in
Integrated Coastal Management
(ICM) programmes
v the lack of a focal agency or
co-ordinating body for ICM
v lack of integration – persistence of
fragmentation and sectoral isolation
v overlapping of jurisdiction and
misunderstandings over
responsibilities
v inadequate legal frameworks to
oversee implementation.
Impacts of the tsunami served to
compound and exacerbate pre-existing
problems related to the aforementioned
unplanned development. For example,
had designated setback areas been
enforced along the coastal zone it is
likely that the mortality rate of
marginalised fisherfolk and their families
throughout the region would have been
significantly reduced. Although, it is
important to stress that while this is
both intuitively correct, and supported
by anecdotal evidence, rigorous
examination of this issue is still ongoing
and remains a matter for debate.
Post-tsunami management
challenges
The need to undertake some kind of
coastal management planning process
within the post-tsunami rehabilitation
effort was widely acknowledged
throughout the region in light of the
significant potential long-term benefits
afforded by an integrated and cross-
sectoral approach.

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Extent of areas affected by the 26 December 2004
tsunami (Source: Adapted from AusAid, 2005)
While the objectives of ICM provide a
sound framework for the long-term
sustainability of projects in the region,
there were a number of barriers to their
effective employment in the immediate
aftermath of the tsunami. Reasons for
this included:
v pressure to re-build tsunami-affected
areas as quickly as possible – both to
re-house local people and to
encourage tourists to return.
v often competing agendas of donors
to promote rapid re-development on
one hand, while promoting
sustainable development on the
other (combined with the sheer
complexity and scale of the
international relief effort). Also
many organisations do not have the
capacity or mandate to strike the
balance needed to respond rapidly
while also setting up programmes to
facilitate sustainable development.
v perception that ICM is about
ecosystem management and not
about land-use planning, tourism
management, hazard management,
urban development or sustainable
livelihood promotion.
v lack of understanding by donors and
national governments regarding the
role of ICM in a disaster situation.
v procurement processes faced by
tsunami-affected countries that are
tied to the many different needs and
systems of releasing funds by donors.
v problems of engaging with local-
level coastal managers charged with
8 The edge Winter 2007
Kamala, Thailand. April 2005,
(credit: Robert Kay)
making on-the-ground land-use
planning decisions. This was an
extreme situation in Aceh,
Indonesia where there was
effectively total disruption to local
government operations as staff were
either killed/injured or focusing on
immediate needs of family and
community members. The result
being that local government was
not functioning and decision-
making became problematic.
Requirements for quick action resulted
in many instances, in duplication and
overlap of resources and effort. While
the rebuilding process has strived to
avoid repeating the mistakes of the
past, unco-ordinated initiatives have
meant that rehabilitation and
reconstruction in areas affected by the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were not
always economically or
environmentally sustainable. This was
due, in large part, to immediate needs
of post-tsunami reconstruction that
resulted in relief and recovery activities
guided by reactive planning
perspectives. Currently, many of these
projects remain incomplete, unfinished
or have failed to achieve their intended
impact. However, rebuilding/restoration
provides the opportunity to step back
and initiate long-term planning using
the ICM framework/process.
Almost two years after the disaster
there are still a large percentage of
regional coastal populations who are
highly vulnerable and ill-equipped to
deal with future disasters. The critical
factor in this context is that ICM
planning strategies are designed to be
long-term pro-active approaches while
its underlying principles can be used to
respond immediately after the relief
stage. In a crisis situation (once
immediate food and shelter needs are
met) ICM was able to assist in rapid
consensus-building to allow informed
decisions to be made. However, this
view of the role of ICM was not
generally shared in the immediate
aftermath of the tsunami – although
there are notable local examples of its
success (see photographs).
Consequently, because of this perception
of ICM as fundamentally a long-term
process, there is an emerging view in
the region that ICM practice requires
modification to cope with the
requirement for immediate responses
on short time frames resulting from
sudden events.
Approaches for sustainable ICM
Examples following the Asian tsunami
highlight the imperative for quick and
robust ICM tools and techniques that are
accepted as an approach by governments
and donors alike in the case of disasters.
In this context, recent collaboration
among national, provincial and local
emergency management agencies and
local communities under the USAID-
funded US Indian Ocean Tsunami
Warning System (IOTWS) Program, has
Koh phi phi Thailand in the aftermath of tsunami 2006
(credit: Simon Gurney)
led to development of the concept of
Coastal Community Resilience(CCR)
(http://www.us-
iotws.gov/ev_en.php?ID=2142_201&ID
2=DO_TOPIC )
The Coastal Community
Resilience Process (IOTWS)
CCR promotes tsunami and other
hazard readiness through better and
more consistent tsunami awareness and
mitigation efforts among communities
at risk. The main goal is to improve
public safety during tsunami
emergencies and to build resilience
against recurring coastal events. This
approach also has the advantage of
enabling the building of social capital
so that communities have resilience to
better deal with a range of externally-
imposed challenges, for example
economic disasters resulting from
currency crashes.
The concept of CCR blends elements of
disaster management and ICM and
improves communities’ ability to
transition from relief, recovery to
rebuilding quicker and more effectively.
It provides a promising framework that
has been tested through local scale
workshops and bodes well for future
efforts to minimise social disruption
and mitigate the effects of events and
impacts. While CCR is relevant to ICM
it should not be viewed as a
replacement. Rather, CCR appears to
be a useful component to be adopted
into a broader ICM framework – ie
protecting against and preparing for
coastal disasters is one component of
the holistic planning process. Indeed,
the CCR concept may become the
conduit through which integration
shortfalls have occurred to date in the
ICM response to the tsunami as
outlined in the next section.
Lessons learned
relevant to post-
tsunami
reconstruction
In the aftermath of the
Indian Ocean tsunami it
has become clear that we
must ensure long-term
sustainable goals of ICM
do not become
compromised by reactive
responses. Although
efforts to rebuild and
reconstruct have been
well intentioned, there
Kamala, Thailand July 2005 (credit: Professor
Wong Poh Poh, National University of Singapore)
are still a large percentage of regional
coastal populations who are highly
vulnerable and ill-equipped to deal with
future disasters. In this climate, the
marriage of coastal disaster response
plans, principals of CCR and traditional
tools and techniques of ICM may
represent the way forward towards a
holistic planning process. This will
protect against and prepare for future
coastal disasters while at the same time
adding considerable benefit to
sustainable responses to the 26
December 2004 tsunami disaster.
Robert Kay is Principal of Coastal
Zone Management (Australia) Pty
Ltd, PO BOX 191, Mosman Park,
Perth, Australia, 6012
Tel +61 (0)8 9284 6460
fax +61 (0)8 9383 3769
Email
robert@coastalmanagement.com
Acknowledgements &
Disclaimer
Thanks to (Ailbhe Travers, Coastal
Zone Management Pty Ltd) for her
assistance with this article and
Jackie Alder for her useful
comments. The funding support
of the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation is gratefully
acknowledged. The opinions
expressed in this article are those
of the authors only and do
necessarily not represent the views
of any other organisation.
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