"Climate induced sea-level rise and associated hazards impose a severe threat on coastal ecosystems and societies. Despite a significant amount of work on coastal vulnerability and impact assessment, the constantly changing and dynamic nature of the coast and the forecasted increase in the magnitude of hazards poses a major challenge to societies and decision makers for the forthcoming years. The constant increase in the concentration of people and resources in the coastal zone highlights the need for dynamic and consistent assessments of coastal vulnerability across space and time. Modelling tools offering such possibilities have recently been developed and have been used for assessing coastal vulnerability in an integrated manner. These tools can be of great assistance in decision and policy making for coping with the increasing exposure of coastal regions to the above mentioned hazards. Such a modelling tool is the DIVA (Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment) integrated assessment model. Developed within the context of the EU-funded DINAS-COAST project, DIVA is a flexible assessment tool, within which a range of mitigation and adaptation policies can be analyzed in terms of coastal vulnerability. Within the above framework, COMPASS aims to achieve: -The transfer of knowledge and expertise on the DIVA model to the partners from Argentina, Brazil and Chile; -The application of DIVA in the study areas; -The evaluation of the results obtained from the DIVA runs, employing data acquired from local study sites and with the use of expert knowledge on local conditions; -the comparative assessment of the results of DIVA for the different regions; -the possibility for developing regional, more detailed, versions of DIVA."