Many efforts have been deployed for developing Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Both basins have, and continue to suffer severe environmental degradation. In many areas this has led to unsustainable trends which have impacted on economic activities and human well-being. An important progress has been made with the launch of the ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean Sea in January 2008. The ICZM Protocol offers, for the first time in the Mediterranean, an opportunity to work in a new way, and a model that can be used as a basis for solving similar problems elsewhere, such as in the Back Sea. The aim of PEGASO is to build on existing capacities and develop common novel approaches to support integrated policies for the coastal, marine and maritime realms of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Basins in ways that are consistent with and relevant to the implementation of the ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean.

PEGASO will use the model of the existing ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean and adjust it to the needs of the Black Sea through three innovative actions: - Constructing an ICZM governance platform as a bridge between scientist and end-user communities, going far beyond a conventional bridging. The building of a shared scientific and end users platform is at the heart of our proposal linked with new models of governance. -Refining and further developing efficient and easy to use tools for making sustainability assessments in the coastal zone (indicators, accounting methods and models, scenarios, socio-economic valuations, etc).

They will be tested and validated in 9 sites (CASES) and by the ICZM Platform, using a multi-scale approach for integrated regional assessment.
- Implementing a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), following INSPIRE Directive, to organize local geonodes and standardize spatial data to support information sharing on an interactive visor, to make it available to the ICZM Platform, and to disseminate all results of the project to all interested parties and beyond.
-Enhancing regional networks of scientists and stakeholders in ICPC countries, supported by capacity building, to implement the PEGASO tools and lessons learned, to assess the state and trends for coast and sea in both basins, identifying present and future main threats agreeing on responses to be done at different scales in an integrated approach, including trans-disciplinar and trans-bondary long-term collaborations.