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The project started in May 2004 with a budget of 2 million euros for the first 3 years period. It is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany (BMBF). The project represents one out of two national German reference-projects on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). In 2002, the environmental minister of the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and the vice-marshall of the Vojevodship Western Pommerania, Poland, signed the Regional Agenda 21 "Oder Lagoon". This Regional Agenda 21 mentions coastal zone management explicitly as one major topic of co-operation and forms the conceptual and spatial basis for this project.
The research area comprises the district Uecker-Randow and Ostvorpommern including the inshore coastal waters. This is at the same time the eastern part of the planning region Vorpommern. It is an area located within a distance of 30-60 km landwards from the coastline. Additionally, the outer coastal waters up to a distance of 12 nautical miles are considered within the project. The described area will be quoted as "coastal zone of the Oder" or, respectively, as "Oder estuary region".
Szczecin Lagoon - Landsat satellite photo (circa 2000), Source: NASA, public domain
(This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted")