Introducing the Blue Economy concept in the Romanian nearshore

The Blue Economy is a comprehensive model, which combines the marine and coastal ecosystems with the management of the human activities. This uses tools and mechanisms as the integrated conservation, the sustainable and efficient resource use, ICZM (Integrated Coastal Zone Management) or spatial planning. In this paper, an integrative approach has been proposed for the achievement of a sustainable development. The concept of blue economy is expected to offer efficiency and optimization of the resource use by creating opportunities for a sustainable growth in a number of the traditional and emerging economic sectors, which are considered as Blue Economy key sectors, such as: shipping/port activities, fisheries and aquaculture, coastal tourism, „Blue†energy, biotechnology, submarine mining. Under this approach, we will discuss about the Blue Economy method applied to the Romanian nearshore, by exploring the concepts of the sustainable development, conceptualising the Black Sea as a “developing space†and providing an opening opportunity for the incorporation of the real value of the natural capital.