Global Coastal Planning Framework’s Influence on Mombasa’s Blue Planning Uptake

Abstract

Mombasa’s coastal planning remains fragmented despite exposure to climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. This study examined how global planning frameworks influence Blue Planning Uptake in Mombasa, addressing limited quantitative evidence on framework availability, institutional capacity and land–sea integration. A descriptive explanatory cross-sectional design used Likert-scale questionnaires from 288 coastal-governance stakeholders, with descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression. The regression model explained 52.5% of variation in uptake. Land–sea planning integration capacity was the strongest predictor (β = 0.563, p < 0.001), followed by environmental management capacity (β = 0.319, p < 0.001) and ICZM adaptive capacity (β = 0.146, p = 0.005). Framework availability and functional effectiveness were not significant predictors. The study contributes empirical evidence that Blue Planning depends less on framework existence than institutional capacity, coordination and operational integration, supporting stronger coastal governance, implementation and adaptive planning in Kenya within rapidly changing coastal governance systems nationally.