Abstract

Understanding the biological and physical parameters of coastal ecosystems and resources is vital for prudent and adaptive management. But the socio-economic context within which any coastal management initiative is undertaken also impacts its success or failure. Monitoring the nature, status and trends of socio-economic characteristics is necessary to determine the most appropriate approaches for successfully managing both the resources and the human interactions at and around the site. Socioeconomic Monitoring for Coastal Managers (SocMon), is a global program which provides a practical, yet flexible, standardized methodology for collecting social and economic monitoring data for coastal manage-ment. The socio-economic information from SocMon can help managers balance sustainable resource use, protection and conservation with community needs for livelihoods, food security and equitable use of resources. Although SocMon was not designed explicitly for use with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), many of the monitoring varia-bles are spatially based. SocMon can be enhanced through spatial representation of information by incorporating GIS, including stakeholder participation where possible. The mapping of information and incorporation into a GIS presents an additional method of storing, analyzing and representing some socio-economic variables by providing spatial references locations, boundaries, trends and changes, regarding resources, people and their interrelationships. This paper sets out research undertaken in the Caribbean on a standard methodology for efficiently and effectively assimilat-ing GIS into the SocMon methodology to develop SocMon Spatial as an enhanced application for coastal, marine and fish-eries management.

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