Coastal Zones

The urbanization process in East of China calls for coastal and ocean management with enhanced capacity. Attaching greater importance to coastal sustainability, China implemented Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) with collaboration of GEF/UNDP/IMO. However, the evolution of coastal management system does not come to the end. This paper first recognizes and highlights the outcome as well as flaws of ICM implementation in local level in the Program of PEMSEA. Furthermore, this paper reviews the roadmap of the evolution of coastal and ocean management system in national level and points out that China has reconstructed this system with a macroscopic view in strategic capability other than organizational capacity in accordance with both domestic mindsets and exotic idea of ICM. With the analysis of political and social and economic contexts, the second half of Part II indicates the fact that in national level coastal sustainability has been combined with the idea of ecological civilization proposed by central government and mobilizes all stakeholders to construct adaptive governance system. The synergy of featured governance network in national level and ICM practice in local level substantially advances coastal sustainability of China. Particularly, we appreciate the endogenous-driven feature of the adaptive governance system and analyze how synergic paradigm addresses the theoretical dilemma hidden in the idea of ICM. This paper also outlines defects within the paradigm in a critical view.