Coastal Governance Solutions Development in Latvia: Collaboration Communication and Indicator Systems

This chapter has focused on the application of the environmental collaboration communication model for separate coastal municipalities in Latvia, in order to assess and to advise on the development of coastal-climate-risk-communication specifications. The model has four components-. information, education, participation, and environmentally friendly behavior-and its use in three coastal municipalities was examined in relation to coastal governance processes and stakeholder participation. This four-part model is recommended for use by municipal administrations in other types of complex communication applications, and should be introduced into all governance levels of the planning process and its documentation.One of the complex and necessary coastal communication instruments is a coastal indicator system. An indicator system has been developed for communication about sustainable coastal governance in the Saulkrasti municipality, and for the first time in Latvia voluntarily incorporated into the local sustainable development strategy as the mandatory development planning document required now at all planning levels.The Baltic Sea coast is varied, as is the coastal governance practice. Necessary national-local governance interactions are often missing. We argue that it would be reasonable to establish coastal communication and decision-support systems based on complementary indicator systems for all coastal governance levels and sectors starting from the local municipal level and above-the coastal observatory network.