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Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) is a challenging process, defined by stakeholder engagement and underpinned by knowledge on the integrated behaviour of coastal systems. While significant advancements in ICZM have been made, a range of difficult and important questions about ‘integration’ remain to be explored. This paper discusses opportunities for addressing such challenges of integration through the application of geographical thinking to understanding and managing coastal environments. It focuses on geographical traditions on systems thinking, the process-based nature of geographic research and geographical contributions to conceptualising place and our relationships to it. Using UK-based case studies the paper explores integration challenges from three different coastal contexts and management perspectives, examining: adaptation through managed realignment in a local community, integrated flood risk management in London and the Thames Estuary and enhancing the ‘socially just’ nature of coastal management. The case-study discussion highlights the importance of ‘geographical thought’ to improving the integrative basis of strategies for managing complex coastal environments. This paper argues that ‘thinking geographically’ is one logical vehicle for increasing our understanding of, and providing solutions to, barriers which limit progress towards greater ‘integration’ in coastal management. Geography is dynamic, plural and based on the recognition that reality is contested and as such geographical ideas could add considerably to emerging cross-disciplinary knowledge on the interactions and interdependencies of behaviours within coastal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]