The project in briefMost Mediterranean countries share the challenges of rapid shoreline development, extreme seasonal fluctuation in populations, vulnerability to coastal hazards and eroding environmental quality. Yet many of these countries are also characterized by inadequate planning, management and enforcement of the regulations, as well as the lack of solid database to assist decision makers. Adopted in January 2008 by the contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention, the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Protocol is the first supra-State legal instrument aimed specifically at coastal zone management to address the above-mentioned issues. Currently, the implementation of the ICZM in the Mediterranean is impeded by a complex and overlapping or conflicting jurisdiction roles and responsibilities of various management bodies in most countries, let alone across borders.Thats why an institutional coordination at national level is needed with comprehensive approaches and coordination between the various authorities at the national, regional and local levels in the field of coastal strategies, plans and programs. MARE NOSTRUM project is focused to facilitate this institutional coordination.Specific objectiveTo design a toolkit of alternative instruments for improving the implementation of ICZM protocol through the development of Public Participation Geographical Information Systems (PPGIS) applications. Expected Results: • Key legal, institutional and administrative impediments (including property rights regimes) to the implementation of ICZM policies, viewed from the local level upwards, identified in the target countries • Impediments across national borders to implementation in both peaceful and conflict-ridden coastal zones identified • Toolkit of recommendations on how to improve the implementation of the Protocol on ICZM and the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive defined • Public involvement achieved through local public participatory approaches in selected pilot areas, including local community mapping practices.