Abstract
Germany is currently in the process of developing ICZM within its federal political framework and
given institutional structures. This includes spatial planning for marine areas as one of the key instruments
to reduce existing conflicts related to competing human activities in its coastal and marine areas.
Based on assessing the current ICZM activities and spatial development changes for the German North
Sea, this chapter elaborates scaling issues using the example of offshore wind farm development from
a national and local perspective. It is shown that national policies, e.g. concerning renewable energies,
impact local developments and need to be discussed in a multi-scale environment taking into account
local concerns as well as national (or international) policy priorities. In addition to developing transparency
about the process, trade-offs need to be integrated across the different scales of decision making.
This becomes especially relevant in times of dynamic change, as has been observed in the German coastal and marine areas, where impacts of decisions taken at one management scale are not always directly visible and are accompanied by high uncertainty. Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) therefore needs to be developed in an environment where dialogues and participatory processes include stakeholders from different scales (national to local).
