ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the evaluation research movement, the evaluation research approach, and the potential uses of evaluation research in the marine and coastal field. Most importantly members of the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies at the University of Southern California have discovered an interest in exploring the possibilities of the evaluation research approach on the part of governmental officials working on coastal zone problems. The evaluation research approach is potentially relevant for the examination of a wide range of marine and coastal issues. In some ways the evaluation research movement can be seen as part of the fallout from the War on Poverty and as resulting from its emphasis on changing societal conditions through social action programs. The evaluation research approach is concerned with the full range of operational procedures involved in the systematic empirical examination of hypotheses regarding the impact of social action programs.
