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Regional COmmon Action STrategy Against Coastal Er.. (COASTANCE)
Regional COmmon Action STrategy Against Coastal Erosion and climate change effects for a sustainable coastal planning in the Mediterranean basin
(COASTANCE)
Start date: Mar 31, 2009,
End date: Mar 30, 2012
PROJECT
FINISHED
Coastal erosion and flooding represents a major threat for the well-being and prosperity of the 70mi Europeans living within 500m from the coastline and their assets of 500- 1000bi€. Lost or seriously impacted area by erosion is estimated to be 15 km2/year. The Nobel Prize laureate UN-IPCC estimates that by 2020 due to Climate Change victims of coastal erosion or flooding will reach 158,000/year, 50% of Europe’s coastal wetlands is expected to disappear as a result of sea level rise at a cost of 5,400mi€/year. According to the EC EUROSION project, the regulatory EIA framework, knowledge base, and traditional measures for erosion control have been weak or inappropriate. COASTANCE will use innovative techniques for mid-long term ICZM Master Plans capitalizing on the Good Practices developed under several European projects (INTERREGIIIB & IIIC-RFO). Its innovation is that it focuses on those practices that resulted from thorough scientific study and understanding of coastal erosion phenomena obtained by previous experience. The concrete results -Realistic Submersion Risk Forecast Systems, Specific EIA/SEA Procedures, Concrete ICZM Master Plans and Officials’ Training- will be used as Governance and Public Policy Tools for erosion control by regional, national and EU administrations. To ensure the project‘s durability, partners will form a Structural Data Infrastructure Community (SDIC) based on the INSPIRE directive and a European Group according to the EU Regulation 1082/2006. Achievements: State of the art of project implementation since the project startCOASTANCE partnership comprises diverse levels of territorial government according to local organisation of competences for coastal area management. It developed networking, cooperation and exchange of experience between regions and other administrative levels, relevant social economic and environmental actors. The final concrete and transferable results (Apr -09 - Mar -12)are: 1)a model and tool for forecasting submersion risk along the coast, based on a number of simple parameters, that is to be made available and usable by a wide public through the web (user friendly web interface) 2)a model to formulate coastal protection action plans and sediment management plans, including examples of plans formulated, during the project, by partner regions, together with a data model and tool for coastal sediment management based on littoral cells (SICELL) 3)guidelines for environmental assessment of coastal protection works, programme and management plans, based on EIA and SEA procedures.Latest project activities and outputsDuring the reporting period the COASTANCE partnership completed all technical deliverables concerning a) a model and tool for forecasting submersion risk, b) a model to formulate coastal protection action plans and sediment management plans, c) guidelines for environmental assessment of coastal protection works, programme and management plans, based on EIA and SEA procedures. The final conference of the project was successfully organised in Komotini, Greece. The conference was attended by 150 stakeholders and presented not only the main outputs but also the future synergies of COASTANCE with other EU projects and clusters. A booklet with the project achievements and a concrete DVD were disseminated within the occasion of the conference. All material is available on COASTANCE website, www.costance.eu. A final conference was also organised by the Croatian partner in Dubrovnik in the framework of the completion of IPA activities as well.Next key steps for the projectCOASTANCE partnership started the formation of a cluster, named FACECOAST - -Face the challenge of climate change in the Med coastal zones- - presented officially within the MED Capitalisation Day in Marseille. Today the cluster is composed, following the signature of a specific Memorandum of Understanding, by 8 projects from different EU programmes. The aim of the cluster is to develop integrated actions at the Mediterranean scale inscribed in a wider Macro-project for the 2014-2020 period.