Revising the Compatibility of Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Processes in the Coastal Zone of the Sonora State, Mexico

Abstract

When designing spatial planning programs for processes in coastal zones, it is essential to consider the connections between marine and terrestrial environments and to coordinate institutional work in their implementation. This study examines the environmental policies of two planning processes in the coastal zone, one terrestrial and one marine, which were formally developed and adopted through decrees in the State of Sonora (NW Mexico). The Gulf of California Marine Spatial Planning (MSP-GC) was decreed in 2006, and the Sonora Coast Land Spatial Planning (LSP-SC) was decreed in 2009 and updated in 2015. This study reviewed, compared, and spatially analyzed the environmental policies established by both planning processes. The results show that both planning processes contain environmental policies with limited links between the marine and terrestrial environments in practice. Both planning processes were enacted with effort, resources, and stakeholder participation, but have not been implemented effectively. It is essential to review the mandates of the decrees, conduct an integrated assessment of environmental policies, and seek ways for federal and State institutional structures to drive the implementation of these planning processes. Considering the dates of the MSP (2006) and LSP-SC (2015) decrees, now it is the right time to evaluate them.

1. Introduction

The coastal zone is a complex biophysical system influenced by the land, sea, and atmosphere; furthermore, the human dimension of coastal societies adds more complexity to the system [1]. The accelerated human population growth in coastal areas worldwide (2000–2018) provides evidence of large population concentrations in relatively small regions along the coast (~2 billion within a 50 km radius and ~1 billion within a 10 km radius); population growth rates in coastal areas exceed those in inland areas, with an increase of 463 million people within a 50 km radius and 233 million within a 10 km radius. Emerging population patterns along the coast increase anthropogenic impacts on terrestrial systems and human vulnerability to sea level rise, land subsidence, extreme weather events, and public-health risks [2]. In this coastal landscape, fragmented governance is inadequate to support healthy coastal and marine ecosystems and sustain human use of the ocean [3]. Environmental pressures from increasing human activities and conflicts between social sectors over the use of coastal resources and spatial planning processes require strategies to organize and guide the sustainable use of the coastal zone, involving all stakeholders [4,5].

Frequently, coastal and marine activities have land-based links and components that must be taken into account. Links between land-based and marine planning systems are essential in this case [6]. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a multi-sectoral and multi-objective process that seeks to integrate and balance existing and emerging human uses, minimize conflicts, and foster compatibility among them, as well as between such uses and the environment [7]. MSP can take many different forms, from high-level strategic plans to comprehensive programs with detailed implementation measures. It can be a policy document or become law, making it legally enforceable [6]. Land Spatial Planning (LSP) promotes environmentally sustainable territories through the integration of factors such as economic demand, population needs, and environmental protection. The mechanisms considered include the following: (i) evaluating existing land use patterns and identifying suitable areas for specific types of development; (ii) ensuring compatibility between land uses in contiguous and nearby areas; (iii) defining appropriate density and intensity of urban development; (iv) supporting the integration of different land uses within the same area; (v) implementing zoning regulations and incentives to guide land use decisions and encourage desired territorial development outcomes; and (vi) involving the general public and stakeholders in the land use planning process to gather feedback and co-create comprehensive decisions [8].

The law in Mexico mandates the management of four types of spatial planning processes, namely: (1) General Territorial Ordinances (Land Spatial Planning), where public activities carried out on land should be based on principles of sustainable development; (2) Marine Ecological Ordinances (Marine Spatial Planning), where public institutions should coordinate the sustainable use of marine resources and the conservation of property; (3) Regional Ordinances (Land Spatial Planning), where land use activities are managed by the government, basically seeking to guide land use policies within a framework of environmental impact caused by productive activities; and (4) Local Ordinances (Land Spatial Planning), where land use activities are managed by the municipality to regulate land use outside of population centers [9]. These environmental policy instruments are formally passed into law by decrees. Once promulgated, these processes should be carried out and constitute adaptive management processes.

Mexico has 17 coastal states with a coastline extension of 11,122 km. Eleven states are located on the Pacific coast and the Gulf of California (7828 km), and six states are in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea (3294 km) [10]. However, in the case of the Mexican coastal zone, planning processes that consider both marine and terrestrial environments face constitutional obstacles to their formal adoption, as marine zones are considered part of the commons and are under federal jurisdiction, and, therefore, cannot be managed by local authorities. This implies that formal planning in coastal zones requires developing a bridge to link terrestrial environments (regulated by state or municipal authorities) and marine environments (regulated by federal authorities) [11].

Regarding coastal planning processes, it is necessary to consider that the socioeconomic and political preferences of a society evolve, competing with other interests and being subject to the decision-making processes of society; in this regard, central issues are the recognition of alternative knowledge claims, the inevitability of uncertainties and the incompleteness of scientific analysis, the acceptance of the political nature of decisions, and the ubiquitous presence of social values [12].

In this context, based on the importance and complexity of implementing planning processes in coastal zones, the objective of this study is to present a review of the environmental policies of marine and terrestrial planning processes in the coastal zone, which were formally developed and adopted through decrees in the State of Sonora (NW Mexico).

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

The State of Sonora is located in northwestern Mexico. Its coastal zone encompasses approximately 1209 km of coastline, facing a marginal sea of the North Pacific (Gulf of California) in a semi-arid subtropical region (Figure 1). This coastal zone is influenced by a dry climate characterized by precipitation less than 300 mm year⁻¹, evaporation below 2000 mm year⁻¹, a mean maximum and minimum temperatures of 38 °C and 5 °C, respectively [13]. It includes macrotidal coasts in the north (Puerto Lobos and Puerto Peñasco) and microtidal coasts in central and southern areas (from Bahía de Kino southward) [14]. It is home to various ecosystems (e.g., mangroves, sandy beaches, rocky beaches, islands, deltas, coastal lagoons, and coastal upwelling areas). The State of Sonora has 13 municipalities with coastline (San Luis Río Colorado, Puerto Peñasco, Caborca, Pitiquito, Hermosillo, Guaymas, Empalme, San Ignacio Río Muerto, Bacum, Cajeme, Benito Juárez, Etchojoa, Huatabampo), with 2,138,708 inhabitants, representing approximately 73% of the state population [15], where various human activities are carried out (coastal agriculture, fisheries, shrimp farming, shipping, port activity, and tourism).

2.2. Methodology

In this study, a review and comparative analysis of the environmental policies of the planning processes that converge in the coastal zone of Sonora were conducted: (1) Marine Spatial Planning of the Gulf of California (MSP-GC) [16], and (2) Land Spatial Planning of the Sonora Coast (LSP-SC) [17].

The procedure consisted of (1) reviewing and comparing the environmental policies of the MSP-GC and LSP-SC programs that converge in the coastal zone of Sonora and (2) spatially expressing and comparing environmental policies in marine and terrestrial environments of the coastal zone.

To illustrate the spatial distribution of environmental policies, a map was created using environmental policy polygons as spatial information layers in the ArcMap 10 program. The MSP-GC included two environmental policies: prevention and remediation, while the LSP-SC included four policies: utilization, conservation, protection, and restoration. On the map, each environmental policy category was represented by a distinct color to show its spatial distribution.

Evidence about the implementation of the MSP-CG and the LSP-SC in the Sonora coastal zone was obtained by browsing the websites of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (www.gob.mx/semarnat) and the Commission for Ecology and Sustainable Development of the State of Sonora (cedes.sonora.gob.mx/), which, according to their respective decrees, guide these processes. The MSP-GC was promulgated on 29 November 2006 [16], and its program was formally adopted on 15 December 2006 [18]. Similarly, the LSP-SC was approved on 11 September 2008 [17]. However, the corresponding Decree was later repealed because the Sonora State Ecological Land Use Planning Program [19] was developed in 2011 and officially enacted in 2015 through its own decree [20], although the same environmental management units and policies originally established in the LSP-SC [17] were incorporated into the Ecological Land Use Planning Program for the State of Sonora [19,20].

3. Results

3.1. Environmental Policies in the Coastal Zone of Sonora

In the marine area, established environmental policies addressed prevention and remediation, while in the terrestrial area, policies for exploitation, conservation, protection, and restoration were established (

Table 1. Categories of environmental policies and their description contained in the decrees of Spatial Planning Processes that converge in the coastal zone of the State of Sonora (NW Mexico).

Environmental Policies of the Gulf of California Marine Spatial Planning (Source: DOF 2006) [16]
Environmental Policy	Policy Description
Prevention	The approach is to maintain current levels of anthropogenic pressure, characterized by low levels of terrestrial pressure and medium levels of marine pressure.
Remediation	The approach is to reverse the trend of high anthropogenic pressure, defined as medium levels of terrestrial pressure combined with high levels of marine pressure.
Environmental Policies of the Sonora State Ecological Land Use Planning Program (Source: BOGES 2015) [20].
Environmental Policy	Policy Description
Exploitation	Irrigation agriculture is feasible with freshwater availability and is compatible with aquaculture, hunting activities, adventure tourism, and traditional sun-and-beach tourism. It is restricted by freshwater availability.
Conservation	Predominates in the buffer zone of two Protected Natural Areas and coastal-dune conservation areas; it is compatible with oyster farming, hunting, real-estate tourism, and adventure tourism. It is restricted by freshwater availability.
Protection	Wetlands, mountain ranges, dune ecosystems, and areas with columnar cacti and Boojum trees, already included in Protected Natural Areas.
Restoration	Wetlands of the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta (AGCDRC, in Spanish) Biosphere Reserve and approximately 36,200 ha of mangrove wetlands characterized by adverse anthropogenic impacts derived from pollutant inputs from industrial wastewater or urban sewage.

).

The Environmental Management Units of the planning processes showed that protection policies predominated in the marine environment and exploitation policies in the terrestrial environment (

Table 2. Number of Environmental Management Units (EMUs) and spatial coverage of their associated Environmental Policies within planning processes that converge in the coastal zone of Sonora (NW Mexico).

Sonora Coast Zone
Environment	Legal Instrument	No. of EMUs	Environmental Policy	% Spatial Coverage
Marine	Gulf of California Marine Spatial Planning	5	Prevention	10
			Remediation	~90
				100
Terrestrial	Sonora State Ecological Spatial Planning Program	27	Exploitation	54
			Conservation	32
			Protection	12
			Restoration	2
				100

).

3.2. Spatial Integration of Environmental Policies in the Coastal Zone of Sonora

In the marine environment, the prevailing policy is remedial due to the high marine and terrestrial anthropogenic pressures from Guaymas northward to Puerto Peñasco, as well as southward. In the northern zone, a preventive policy prevails, implemented in the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve located there; in contrast, the rest of the marine environment is under high anthropogenic pressure (Figure 2).

In terrestrial environments located in the northern part of Sonora, part of the protection policy coincides with the prevention policy in the marine environment. The restoration policy, primarily located in the south of the State, appears to have insufficient coverage (<3%) and is therefore inconsistent with the marine remediation policy related to the high anthropogenic pressure in that region. The exploitation policy (54% coverage) is associated with various forms of irrigation agriculture, shrimp farming, tourism, and hunting activities. The conservation policy (32% coverage) is considered compatible with hunting, tourism, and oyster farming (Figure 2).

In summary, the environmental policies of the MSP-GC focus broadly on a spatial scale, without defining specific actions within Environmental Management Units. LSP-SC environmental policies are more specific in terms of protection and restoration, but more general concerning exploitation and conservation.

The implementation of the MSP-GC can be summarized as follows: (1) a meeting held in 2007 to present research progress; (2) five workshops held in 2007 to discuss problems and conflicts of environmental priority at the local level priority in Environmental Management Units, carried out in five different cities around the Gulf of California; and (3) eight inter-institutional working meetings held in 2010, 2011, and 2012 to address issues recorded in Bahia del Tobari, a coastal system in the south of Sonora within the priority region for attention according to the MSP-GC program. Regarding LSP-SC, the website (cedes.sonora.gob.mx/) did not provide evidence of its implementation. However, both spatial planning instruments (marine and terrestrial) are mentioned in the environmental impact assessments of development projects in the coastal zone.

4. Discussion

The MSP-GC was developed before the LSP-SC. Planning focused on the Sonoran coastal zone was appropriate, given that a significant part of the pressure on the marine environment originates from human activities in the terrestrial environment. However, the results suggest that the LSP-SC was not designed considering interactions with the marine environment.

In particular, the results of the planning processes in the coastal zone of Sonora indicate that policies addressing the marine and terrestrial environments follow different approaches, which implicitly means that they are not linked. Particularly, the MSP-GC environmental policies are primarily oriented toward remediation of environmental problems, while those of the LSP-SC are basically oriented toward exploitation (54%) emphasizing that the availability of fresh water is the key limiting factor for economic development in the coastal zone; and conservation (32%), focused on maintaining the continuity of environmental structures, processes and services related to the protection of ecological elements and strategic productive uses. In planning processes addressing coastal areas, Ruttenberg and Granek (2011) [21] have observed this complexity and found frequent cases where the interaction between marine and terrestrial environments is not considered, which is consistent with the results of our case study. This underscores the need to examine the interactions between terrestrial and marine processes and activities to support the design of effective environmental policies. In this regard, it should be considered that land–sea interactions include processes, natural flows, threats from one environment affecting the other, and socioeconomic interactions. These interactions are all related to management decisions aimed at maintaining, restoring, preventing, or mitigating impacts associated with the interaction between terrestrial and marine environments [22]. In this regard, evidence has been provided of the importance of involving both marine and terrestrial environments in the planning stage to identify the threats and potential scenarios [23]. Our study did not focus on detecting land–sea interactions, as it focused only on the comparative analysis of the environmental policies established in both planning processes. However, future research is needed to build a complete picture of the interactions between land and sea to support the functioning of the MSP and LSP processes in the State of Sonora. To this end, according to Innocenti and Musco [24], it is necessary to consider a given territory and its socioeconomic and ecological dynamics from holistic and integrated perspectives to respond more effectively to various issues, such as climate change and other unforeseen events. This would provide new information that would improve the discourse on land–sea interactions in both land use planning and maritime spatial planning.

On the other hand, our results indicate the lack or limited implementation of both planning programs established by decree. It should be noted that the MSP-GC and LSP-SC processes, from their design to their decree, were designed with the participation of the different stakeholders and following a defined agenda. However, the programs were either not implemented or the implementation actions were minimal, despite the effort, time, management, and financial resources invested to succeed in decreeing these planning instruments. This has also been observed in the case of marine spatial planning programs around the world, which are frequently never implemented despite significant investments of time and money in research, meetings, analysis, and planning [25]. The reasons for this lack of implementation are diverse and specific to each case. A major barrier to integrating land–sea planning is the lack of coordination between institutions that support coastal management; typically, terrestrial and marine affairs are managed by different institutions, departments, or groups in the coastal zone [26]. In addition, of course, not all coastal countries have sufficient governance and institutional capacity to support the sustainable use of ecosystems; similarly, the lack of sufficient resources is a barrier in many coastal countries. In addition, poverty and the lack of alternative resources to meet basic needs can pose practical and political barriers to sustainable governance, especially if governance measures interfere with the use of coastal and marine ecosystems for subsistence purposes [27]. In the case of the coastal zone of Sonora, our results suggest weak governance and a lack of government interest in implementing these planning processes.

Given this scenario, recent evidence of emerging national marine spatial planning systems shows an emphasis on processes to enhance dialog and understanding, as well as a focus on concrete actions that translate policy results into actual outcomes and generate goals with an ecosystem approach [28]. The MSP-GC has served as a reference environmental policy for linking with other public policies and various management tools (environmental impact assessments, permits, licenses, authorizations, orders, government programs); however, working meetings to address MSP-GC issues were discontinued in 2012. On this issue, Díaz-Mondragón et al. (2021) [29] observed that the lack of resources to conduct technical studies and maintain the activities of ecological planning committees has limited the effectiveness of marine spatial planning in Mexico.

In the case of LSP-SC, there was a clear breach of Article 5 included in its Decree [20], which states “It is noted that the Committee on Ecology and Sustainable Development of the State of Sonora will perform the necessary actions for the execution of the program in coordination with the agencies and bodies of the State Public Administration whose attributions are related to the same, and with the municipalities located within the established coastal zone”. Similarly, this Committee shall periodically monitor the progress of its implementation, evaluate its results, and issue the recommendations and proposals that are required for due enforcement. Based on this, several years after its creation, the possibilities for the practical implementation of the LSP-SC program remain open, which means it can be revised, updated, and amended according to current development trends, all within a comprehensive approach to coastal management.

In addition, coastal municipalities can play a key role in implementing these environmental policies by incorporating them into their development plans, or better yet, in developing local spatial planning at the municipal level, as municipal planning processes have constitutional powers to regulate land use. Arreola-Lizárraga et al. (2015) [30] presented a case study of the confluence of three planning processes (under federal, state, and local jurisdiction) in the municipality of Guaymas, Sonora, which provided evidence that the local process, the “Territorial Program of the Guaymas-Empalme-San Carlos conurbation zone”, developed in 1999 and later evaluated and updated in 2011, was a governmental success that details a zoning that, if implemented, would help establish a better link with the MSP-GC. According to Pittman and Armitage (2016) [31], there are few easy solutions to the emerging biophysical and institutional challenges at the land–sea interface; however, ongoing conceptual development in the areas of collaboration, networks, fit, and social–ecological systems can produce sources of innovation to foster meaningful and beneficial governance across the land–sea interface. In the coastal zone of Sonora, the two planning processes enacted represent an opportunity to adjust and advance the implementation of the actions.

It has been observed that management is the process by which human and material resources are used to reach a goal within a known institutional structure, while governance sets the stage for management to take place, dealing with the values, policies, laws, and institutions through which a set of issues are addressed [32]. Reuter et al. (2016) [33] reviewed 108 relevant studies to understand how integrated land–sea management is utilized, noting that more than 50% did not apply a framework or governance approach, and over 80% listed at least one conflict or barrier that restrained program success. The results of our case study indicate the need to strengthen governance, examine the fundamental objectives and mandate of the decrees for MSP-GC and LSP-SC, and, above all, find ways for the institutional structures of SEMARNAT (for the MSP-GC) and CEDES (for the LSP-SC) to resume the operation of these planning processes. Pittman and Armitage (2016) [31] observed that governance involving land–sea interactions faces multiple challenges, including (1) the determination of boundaries; (2) finding suitable scales for governance; and (3) accessing adequate knowledge. These three challenges apply to the coastal zone of Sonora, which essentially corresponds to a governance issue. Considering the efforts to elaborate and decree these planning processes at the federal and State levels, a feasible strategy would be to promote the joint evaluation of the two legal systems (marine and coastal). These are long-term processes that require funding. The initial phase involves design and formal adoption by decree; however, these processes require monitoring during the first implementation cycle and an evaluation to upgrade it and continue with a second cycle (Olsen et al., 2014) [34]. Gazzola et al. (2015) [35] suggested that there is an opportunity for both Marine and Land Space Planning and their respective disciplines to be more innovative with respect to the development of and experimentation with framework planning scenarios and approaches that examine complementarity or integration options, or, if necessary, the separation of processes, adopting a more holistic and integral approach as a starting point for evaluation.

Evidence has been provided that the application of land–sea interaction analysis in marine spatial planning (MSP) continues to pose challenges, and that countries address it with different approaches and levels of analysis [36]. According to IOC-UNESCO 2022 [37], although around 100 countries/territories have already started establishing MSP processes for their national waters, most of them are still in the early stages. It was detected that the extent of MSP implementation is not homogeneous, nor is the level of institutional, technical, and human capacities. The design of the MSProadmap (2022–2027) covers a set of six priority areas divided into transversal and thematic pillars. Transversal: (1) knowledge support, (2) capacity development and awareness, (3) transboundary cooperation. Thematic: (4) climate-smart MSP, (5) marine protection and restoration, and (6) sustainable blue economy. All these areas are important, but based on our results, area 2 is a priority because it incorporates a focus on land–sea interactions at a time when evaluating these planning processes on the coast of the State of Sonora is necessary.

It is also important to consider incorporating municipal spatial planning and conducting an integrated analysis to strengthen governance and guide coastal management. These adjustments may include reviewing and adapting environmental policies, identifying areas with common environmental characteristics and usage problems that include both land and marine environments, and effectively implementing functional management schemes. A first step in this coastal management process would be to set clear objectives and goals, followed by strengthening governance for monitoring and evaluation.

5. Conclusions

The two spatial planning processes that converge in the Sonoran coastal zone involve policies for marine and terrestrial environments that are loosely connected in both design and practice. In the marine environment, a policy focused on the remediation of problems derived from anthropogenic pressure prevails, while in the terrestrial environment, an exploitation-driven policy dominates. The main difficulty identified in the present analysis is that, despite both planning processes being enacted with effort, resources, and stakeholder participation, they have not been effectively implemented. It is essential to review the mandates of the decrees, conduct an integrated assessment of their environmental policies, and seek ways for federal and State institutional structures to drive the implementation of these planning processes. Considering the dates of the MSP (2006) [18] and LSP-SC (2015) [20] decrees, it is time to evaluate them. The limitations detected can become opportunities. Likewise, land–sea interactions should be considered, including interactions between anthropogenic and environmental uses.