Economic and environmental explanations for the scale and scope of coastal management around the Mediterranean

Coastal management involves multiple possible actions at various spatial scales. Yet, what determines in practice the scale and scope of coastal management? To address this question we investigate two possible explanations for the scale and scope of coastal management regimes: an economic explanation, focusing on the costs and benefits of widening the scale and scope of such management regimes, and an environmental explanation, focusing on the environmental issues and threats. To test these explanations, we analyze the relations between the economic and environmental dimensions and the scale and scope of coastal management in 17 Mediterranean countries using the co-plot method based on The Mediterranean Action Plan data. While we do find wider scale and scope of coastal management in countries with higher disposable income, these do not seem to be clearly and directly related to the intensity of specific economic activities that are more sensitive to environmental degradation or to level of pollution in coastal zone.