3. Methodology and concept for comprehensive assessment of coastal systems and infrastructure sustainability

A prerequisite for the assessment of the integrated sustainability of regional development is a comprehensive analysis of data at all levels of the national economic system: inter-country, national, regional (e.g., subjects of the Russian Federation), and local (local municipalities). This procedure concerns both the development of a system of indicators for assessing the

Nevertheless, it should be noted that currently both Russian and foreign scientists are trying to create a methodology for the indicator assessment of development sustainability, which takes into account the impact of economic, social, and environmental factors, which proves the relevance of the problem of creating a methodology for assessing the sustainability of regional socioeconomic and environmental systems. The main requirements to the system of indicators of sustainable development of regional socioeconomic systems, taking into account the characteristics of the regions, acting as the basis for building a system of indicators for assessing the

• a systematic approach is required for choosing indicators, which takes into account the

• data collection should not be linked to the need for hard, costly, and time-consuming work;

The indicator is the most applicable to the process of regional management, the totality of which are index, which are the basis of ecological and economic modeling of the territory

The harmonious combination of indicators assessing the quality of the population, the natural environment, the regional business, and environmental policy will avoid the result of the "system degrades," as the timely detection of intermediate States is an important condition for effective environmental and economic modeling of the territory's development process [17].

In general, on the basis of Russian and international experience in assessing the sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, in applying to the tasks of territorial planning, it is necessary to take into account the need to use a multilevel system for assessing the sustain-

sustainability of territorial development and their monitoring [14].

sustainability of regional systems, are the following [7, 15, 16]:

• used to justify the decision by quantifying and simplifying;

• allowed to reveal shortcomings in environmental management;

• facilitated the exchange of scientific and technical information.

• made it easier to access information for different categories of users;

• the number of indicators should be sufficient but, if possible, limited;

interaction of subsystems;

82 Sustainability Assessment and Reporting

• all indicators should be transparent; and

• indicators should be complementary.

ability of coastal systems and infrastructure.

However, indicators are

• help interpret changes;

development process.

The main purpose of the methodology for the comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure of different spatial levels is to identify the conditions for the stability and formation of the potential of the functioning and development of coastal infrastructure of coastal areas as territorial systems of different spatial levels, as well as their interaction with the environment.

The methodology of comprehensive assessment of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure sustainability and analysis of its components can be used for the following tasks [18]:


The methodology of assessment and analysis of the components of the sustainability factors of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure for different spatial levels can allow


At the same time, the indicator approach, which is considered as the basis for the assessment and analysis of the components of the sustainability factors of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure for different spatial levels, involves the use of different systems of indicators for the analysis and assessment of the state of stability and development trends of coastal systems. The main critical points of using the existing indicator systems are as follows [7, 18]:

Certainly, the construction and use of indicator systems can be combined by the methods of

Comprehensive Assessment of the Sustainability of Coastal Systems of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78970

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A comprehensive value reflecting situation of the coastal regions and its infrastructure condi-

As the main approach to the comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, it is necessary to use the GIS-based research method. GIS in this case is a kind of catalyst, which is necessary for solving problems related to the spatial distribution of climatic, environmental, economic, legal, and geopolitical

Many GIS are related to inventory-type tasks that focus on data and measurements (e.g., land cadastre tasks); others are related to management and decision-making tasks with a focus on modeling and complex data analysis. The first type of task is most important because it accounts for the maximum number of implemented systems, including the largest number of users and the volume of data collected. However, GIS is also widely used as a reference system. Regardless of whether powerful analytical procedures and complex queries are available for working with data, GIS is very often used as a decision-making tool, and the efficiency achieved here is often very high due to the clarity of cartographic visualization of information

For the purposes of complex assessment of sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, the concept of GIS-tool "AZRF Coastal Systems" was made. In general, such GIS is a special information system that collects, processes, stores, displays, and distributes spatial data, as well as non-spatial data on the

• multistructural databases (banks of data and knowledge) with the necessary quality of dynamism, that is, the ability to quickly process and continuously update, reflecting all

• variety of different models, algorithms, and programs for processing and converting data on the coastal systems of the Russian Arctic in semantic spatial information in accordance

• global (spatial–temporal database for the whole set of coastal systems of the Russian

• regional (spatial–temporal database on the coastal subjects of the Russian Arctic); and • regional (spatial–temporal database for coastal municipalities of the Russian Arctic).

coastal systems of the Russian Arctic including the maritime components.

changes occurring in the coastal systems of the Russian Arctic;

Structurally, GIS "AZRF Coastal Systems" consists of the following elements:

with certain requirements of processing and visualization in GIS; and

GIS "Coast of the Russian Arctic" was implemented at three spatial levels:

GIS at the third local level is currently under development.

calculating the indicator values.

and ease of access to information.

• interface set access to GIS.

Arctic);

aspects.

tion can be considered as a set of groups of indexes.


Assumptions that can be used in the development of indicator subsystems and methods for indicators calculating can be summarized as follows:


There are four main groups of methods to determine the values of various indicators [7, 18]:


Certainly, the construction and use of indicator systems can be combined by the methods of calculating the indicator values.

A comprehensive value reflecting situation of the coastal regions and its infrastructure condition can be considered as a set of groups of indexes.

As the main approach to the comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, it is necessary to use the GIS-based research method. GIS in this case is a kind of catalyst, which is necessary for solving problems related to the spatial distribution of climatic, environmental, economic, legal, and geopolitical aspects.

Many GIS are related to inventory-type tasks that focus on data and measurements (e.g., land cadastre tasks); others are related to management and decision-making tasks with a focus on modeling and complex data analysis. The first type of task is most important because it accounts for the maximum number of implemented systems, including the largest number of users and the volume of data collected. However, GIS is also widely used as a reference system. Regardless of whether powerful analytical procedures and complex queries are available for working with data, GIS is very often used as a decision-making tool, and the efficiency achieved here is often very high due to the clarity of cartographic visualization of information and ease of access to information.

For the purposes of complex assessment of sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, the concept of GIS-tool "AZRF Coastal Systems" was made. In general, such GIS is a special information system that collects, processes, stores, displays, and distributes spatial data, as well as non-spatial data on the coastal systems of the Russian Arctic including the maritime components.

Structurally, GIS "AZRF Coastal Systems" consists of the following elements:


At the same time, the indicator approach, which is considered as the basis for the assessment and analysis of the components of the sustainability factors of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure for different spatial levels, involves the use of different systems of indicators for the analysis and assessment of the state of stability and development trends of coastal systems.

• most indicator systems operate on the absolute values of indicators, without actually conducting a comprehensive integrated assessment of sustainable development;

• there is no uniform approach to the formation of system of comprehensive assessments of

• in principle, the specificity of coastal systems is not taken into account in the existing

Assumptions that can be used in the development of indicator subsystems and methods for

• requires the rejection of the use of weight functions in the calculation of integral indicators, as this will lead to ambiguity and controversy in assessing the importance of each

There are four main groups of methods to determine the values of various indicators [7, 18]: 1. Method of the indicator calculation based on the approximate degree of the parameter value to the maximum value. The maximum value can be defined as the maximum value of this characteristic of all coastal zone of the relevant spatial level. Indicator values are

2. Method of the indicator calculation based on the deviation degree of the parameter from the average value. The average value of the considered characteristic of all coastal areas of the relevant spatial level is taken. Indicator values are always more than 1, without loss

3. Method of the indicator calculation based on the deviation degree of the parameterspecific values from the specific values of similar parameters of a higher spatial level. For example, as a parameter of a higher spatial level, it is possible to have a value with the same characteristic of the Russian Subject coastal zone, if the considered parameter refers to the level of the coastal Regional Municipality of the Russian Federation, and so on. Norm-referenced values can be taken, for example, the population of the corresponding level, area square, and so on. Indicator values are always more than 1, without loss of the

4. Method of the indicator calculation based on the deviation degree of the parameter from the extreme values. As the extreme values can be taken, the maximum and minimum values of the characteristic of all coastal areas of relevant spatial level. Indicator values

• indicator value must be dimensionless and takes values ranging from 1 to +1;

The main critical points of using the existing indicator systems are as follows [7, 18]:

a condition; and

84 Sustainability Assessment and Reporting

indicator systems.

indicator.

always between 0 and 1.

of the upper limit.

upper limit.

are always in the range from 1 to +1.

indicators calculating can be summarized as follows:

GIS "Coast of the Russian Arctic" was implemented at three spatial levels:


GIS at the third local level is currently under development.
