Common standards monitoring • Managed realignment

The importance of saltmarshes to the economic and social fabric of society broadens the need for monitoring, encompassing both the environmental and (socio-) economic issues. Linking these into an assessment of the effectiveness of policy and action, add another dimension to the complexity of a monitoring programme.

Information on future trends in the state of the environment, as well as prospects for socio-economic and sectoral interests, are crucial for determining progress against policy targets and to ascertain, amongst other things:

• Whether current policy measures can be expected to deliver the required improvements, taking into account trends in external factors;
• Whether additional polices might be considered to be necessary to achieve the expected improvements; and
• Whether new policy needs are likely to emerge in unmonitored areas.

Developing indicators as an integral part of a strategy for policy formulation is a common approach. Using a variety of techniques, involving existing information and new data derived from remotely sensed sources and traditional survey, monitoring and research, it is possible to establish an integrated approach to saltmarsh management which matches the needs of the coastal zone generally and saltmarshes in particular. For example, we should be able to measure saltmarsh change, relate this to sea level rise and provide a means of assessing different options for sea defence according to economic and social criteria.

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