Sea management as the management of complexity : the Mediterranean case

Abstract

This paper is based on the following statements: (i) the conservation and protection of the marine environment is to be regarded as a module of the sea management as a whole; (ii) sea management implies the management of webs of uses and webs of relationships between uses also on a regional scale; (iii) that it involves three levels of analysis, i.e. cognitive, prospective and pro-positive; (iv) as a consequence, a specific problem of complexity comes into evidence; (v) a subset of the world's seas, above all semi enclosed seas, should be regarded as case studies, because their webs of uses and related environmental impacts grow rapidly; (vi) the Mediterranean Sea could be included in this subset. Starting from these basic statements, the recent phases of the involvement of the Mediterranean Sea in uses and environmental impact will be recalled. This will lead us to take into account. on the one hand, a first approach-based matrix of uses and environmental impact and related methodological implications and, on the other hand, the prospects of promoting regional management in this semi-enclosed sea.