Home Database Research and knowledge projects Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity
Website experience degraded
The European Climate and Health Observatory is undergoing reconstruction until June 2024 to improve its performance. We apologise for any possible disturbance to the content and functionality of the platform.
Project

Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity (REST-COAST)

Description:

Coastal regions provide some of the most productive and biodiverse environments with an important and often underappreciated carbon storage potential, combined with the highest densities of population, assets and cultural heritage in the world. Rapidly developing and changing, these socially, economically and environmentally important areas are experiencing progressive degradation and escalating risks, further exacerbated by climate change. Coastal management is often based on single-sided use of resources proven unsustainable in the long term as the associated environmental pressures remain unresolved. This, combined with increasing climate and human pressures and decreasing natural capital, results in declining biodiversity and ecosystem services, leading to growing costs and a significant carbon footprint.

REST-COAST addresses some of the key challenges to coastal ecosystems today - all consequences of a long history of environmental degradation of our rivers and coasts. These inherent problems are now exacerbated by climate change, (rising sea levels, coastal erosion, infiltration of salty water reduction of natural transport of sediments, etc). The goal of REST-COAST is to demonstrate that large-scale coastal restoration is not only possible but vital for our adaptation to climate change. Coastal ecosystems can provide low-carbon adaptation potential to reduce risks and provide gains in biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery (such as agri- and aquaculture, flood protection and tourism). The restoration of vulnerable coastal ecosystems, such as wetlands, dunes, or seagrass beds requires the overcoming of technical, economic, governance and social barriers to restoration upscaling.

The action of restoration of the perturbated river-to-coast connectivity, will be tested in 9 pilot areas in order to increase the resilience and the delivery of coastal ecosystem services, for which the selected sites provide ample opportunity under present and future climate scenarios. The 9 Pilot projects represent vulnerability hotspots for the main EU regional seas (Baltic, Black, North Atlantic and the Mediterranean). Finally, through engaging communication activities REST-COAST aims at increasing the commitment of citizens, stakeholders and policymakers towards long-term maintenance of coastal restoration.

The project in November 2023  partnered with SCORE, CoCliCo and PROTECT projects as part of Adapt4Coast Cluster—a collaboration of four EU-funded projects dedicated to bolstering climate resilience in European coastal areas and cities. The Adapt4Coast cluster was supported by the Horizon Results Booster, an initiative of the European Commission.

 

Project information

Lead

Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain

Partners

The Global Climate Forum (GCF), Germany; HEREON, Germany; NLWKN -Forschungsstelle Küste, Germany; German; Marine Research Consortium (KDM), Germany; The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), Israel; Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel; the INRAE Microbial Ecology centre of Lyon -Villeurbanne (LEM), France; Tour du Valat (TDV), France; Egis Group, France; MEDPAN, France; MedWet, France; Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), Italy; CORILA, Italy; University of Catania, Italy; Umberto Pernice, Italy; Mediterranean and Sea Foundation (MEDSEA), Italy; Pensoft Publishers, Bulgaria; Institute of Oceanology (IO-BAS), Bulgaria; Deltares, The Netherlands; Province of Groningen, The Netherlands; Wageningen Marine Research (WMR), The Netherlands; Wageningen University (WU), The Netherlands; Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), The Netherlands; Ecoshape, The Netherlands; Maritime Engineering Laboratory (LIM), Spain; EURECAT, Spain; Albirem Sustainability, Spain; Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain; International Centre for Coastal Resources Research (CIIRC), Spain; Government of Catalonia (GENCAT), Spain; Directorate General for the Coast and the Sea (DGCM) of the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) and Demographic Challenge, Spain; the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO / BirdLife), Spain; The University of East Anglia (UEA), U.K; The University of Lincoln (UoL), U.K; Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), Turkey; Institute of Hydro-Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBW PAN), Poland; International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Switzerland.

Reference information

Websites:

Published in Climate-ADAPT Aug 02 2022   -   Last Modified in Climate-ADAPT Jan 17 2024

Document Actions