Integrated Coastal Zone Management tools for sustainable resources exploitation

Sustainable development in coastal areas is a major priority in recent actions taken by the European Commission. Moreover, the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has a long history of legislation within the European Community and it has found wide acceptance in the areas of interest. ICZM application requires management tools that can balance ecological and socio-economics aspects connected to human activities and costal zones features. Recently, some efforts have been done in order to develop new methodological approaches, and alternative strategies tools for ICZM implementation. The progress in terms of new-knowledge improvement helps to promote strategies for sustainable development with unquestionable impact on private companies with numerous social and economic benefits for the stakeholders. This chapter reports a recent experience in the development of multidisciplinary tools dedicated to support the analysis of coastal systems by means of a system approach, and in order to guarantee sustainable resource exploitation.