The Southern North Sea Functional Uses and Institutional Arrangements

The southern North Sea is bordered by the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The North Sea basin and its adjacent shorelines are intensively used. Managements of the basin and the coastal zone is therefore essential. Because of the small scale of the area, the population density and the numerous interactions, international cooperation is vital. In this paper an overview is given of both the morphologic-physical interactions and the administrative interactions between the governments involved. A complicating factor in Coastal Zone Management around the southern North Sea is that CZM is highly connected to national spatial planning and to sea defence policy. In several of the North Sea countries this is not a subject of the national government, but is dealt with at regional level.