The CoastView project: Developing video-derived Coastal State Indicators in support of coastal zone management.

The contribution outlines the phylosophy and procedures adopted in a major European research project focused on the development of video systems in support of coastal zone management. The CoastView project developed video-derived Coastal State Indicators (CSIs) that directly facilitate management decisions. CSIs are defined as " A reduced set of issue-related parameters that can simply, adequately and quantitatively describe the dynamic state and evolutionary trends of a coastal system". The process of defining useful CSIs involves close interaction between coastal managers, scientists and policy makers. An approach is described in the paper which guarantees the effectiveness of the resulting CSIs, and enhances the communication process between scientists and coastal managers. Some practical examples of the frame of reference are given by way of illustration and a detailed description is given of the procedure adopted within the CoastView project for defining and evaluating CSIs. The philosophies and methodologies used during the three year CoastView project have proved successful and provide a valuable template on which to base future research projects focussing on end-user oriented research.