Partnership, Process, and Planning in Estuary Management: The Case of the Lower Thames

The 1990s saw the rise of environmental issues up the public policy agenda, and a search for new methods of managing humanity's relationship with its environment. In 1992 the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro launched Local Agenda 21 as a means of involving local communities in environmental action. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the Environment Select Committee of the House of Commons identified a need for coastal and estuary zone protection, and planning (Environment Select Committee, 1992). Recognition ofthe human contribution to climate change has given an added urgency to the search for new approaches to estuary and coastal zone management (ECZM) (Agriculture Select Committee, 1998; DETR 2000).