Pour un suivi conjoncturel de l'environnement : à propos des ports du littoral français

This study aims to integrate the problems associated with port development and related activities in an economic monitoring programme that surveys all the activities associated with the marine environment. The economic monitoring programme in this sector also includes studying coastal spatial planning. This type of study concerns the creation and remodelling of sites that involve investments. We can consider two types of coastal spatial planning: one which integrates port development, tourism, aquaculture and fisheries and one that deals with the marine environment (Abric, 1989). Economic surveys of port development on French coasts supposes that the problem of identifying information sources have been resolved and the sectors and the activities that should be accounted for have been characterised. In what follows, the limits of available information and the problems pertaining to the proposed classification of activities according to statistical nomenclature will be discussed. The absence of structured and localised data is aggravated in certain cases by the rules of confidentiality. In light of these difficulties, the first part of this report is devoted to the inventory of general information sources and to the characterisation of existing data. As information forms the basis of any economic monitoring programme, it is necessary to know where, how and by whom information is processed and the limits that one comes up against. This report does not pretend to be exhaustive given the deadlines and the duration of this study. The second part of this report constitutes a summary of the recent trends discerned in terms of port development, from a legal, as well as economic and financial, point of view. This study should be considered as the first step to establishing a basis for a more in-depth study.