Integrated Indicator Approach for Economic-Environmental Assessment of Coastal Local Municipalities

Development of coastal local municipalities is related to economic benefits and environmental issues. Increasing human populations, development of marine infrastructure and traffic, etc., have led to significant increase of anthropogenic pressure on the coastal environment of local municipalities in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. On the other hand, designating new protected areas can provide means to reduce negative impacts of human activities in coastal environments. Coastal local municipalities within these regions were compared in spatial and temporal scales, based on an integrated indicator approach. Trends of anthropogenic pressure were shown and environmental protection actions to mitigate the negative impacts of this pressure in the Eastern Gulf of Finland were discussed. The integrated indicator approach is based on socio-economic and environmental aspects. Dimensionless indicators, which are calculated for coastal local municipalities of the Leningrad region and for four coastal municipal regions of St. Petersburg, provide an opportunity to compare and analyze trends of municipality conditions on a comparative basis. In this paper, results of calculation and assessment of environmental and economic indicators for coastal local municipalities are made for the period between 2008 and 2016.