Mt. Imperial et Tm. Hennessey, AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH TO MANAGING ESTUARIES - AN ASSESSMENT OF THE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM, Coastal management, 24(2), 1996, pp. 115-139
Traditional coastal resource management programs tend to be fragmented
and focused on a limited subset of problems. Many scholars, governmen
t practitioners, and academics have argued that an ecosystem-based app
roach is more appropriate. A promising ecosystem-based approach to man
aging estuaries in the United States is the National Estuary Program (
NEP). The goal of this article is to examine the extent to which the N
EP's management conference process represents an ecosystem-based appro
ach to managing estuarine systems. The article begins with a discussio
n of the challenges associated with utilizing an ecosystem-based appro
ach to environmental management. The strategy, structure, and process
of the NEP are then examined using evaluative criteria drawn from a pr
evious study of historical attempts to manage coastal areas in the Uni
ted States. Based on the results of this assessment, some of the stren
gths and weaknesses of the NEP's management conference process are ide
ntified. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications a
ssociated with adopting ecosystem-based approaches to environmental ma
nagement on a broader scale in the United States.