The overall goal of the IOC Integrated Coastal Research:

To foster research to deliver improved tools for management of nutrient loading to the marine environment.

The ultimate goal is to develop novel datasets and innovative, predictive models, which will be shared with scientists, managers, and policy-makers from regions experiencing (or likely to experience) negative impacts due to changes in coastal nutrient loading.  In so doing, this program establish a link between several IOC of UNESCO programs and projects, including: the Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) program, ,the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) program, and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), as well as the activities of other organizations such as the IGBP Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) program.