Piekrastes pārvaldības attīstība apvienotām pašvaldībām: municipālais monitorings un sadarbība

Abstract

With an increasing focus on the sustainable governance of natural resources while meeting societal needs and promoting the economic growth of territories, in the European Union, especially since the Strategy of the Year 2000, an integrated approach to coastal territorial management has been developed. Also in Latvia, relatedly, it was necessary to update the principles of integrated management in the context of coastal development and its planning practices. As the Latvian coastline stretches for almost 500 km, it is important to promote the development of an integrated approach not only in the coastal cities, which usually have some previous experience and more capacity in comparison to the rural coastal municipalities. In Latvia, in 2019, the administrative territorial reform was pursued in order to promote the development of the country, and as a result, it is planned to merge several local municipalities by June 2021, reducing their number from 119 to 42, thus creating a new administrative territorial divisions. It also means combining coastal municipalities with non-coastal ones, including the case of merging of four municipalities around the town Talsi: a non-coastal town-centred municipality is merged together with three coastal rural municipalities – Dundaga, Roja and Mērsrags. As a result of the administrative territorial reform, the newly established Talsi county municipality will be facing a number of challenges, including how to rationally manage the approximately 90 km long coastal area, emphasizing the sustainable management and administration of natural resources that is so relevant today, while meeting the growing socio-economic and cultural needs of the local society.