Territorial Action Plans for coastal protection and management

The main aim of Component 4 of the COASTANCE project is the formulation of plans for coastal protection and management, and adaptation to climate change effects such as erosion and submersion risks. The focus is on low sandy or pebbly coastal zones and their inlands; the most exposed to sea level rise, erosion and submersion.

The work was developed keeping in mind a strategy framework for low and sandy beach management based on two pillars: (i) feeding the system with sediment coming from external sources or from management of sediment accumulations within the system; and (ii) reducing sediment losses from the littoral and beach system through proper management of beach sediment.

In the final phase of this project component, four territorial action plans for coastal protection were developed by project partners in four different areas: East Macedonia and Thrace, Crete (Greece), Cyprus, Gulf of Lion (France), and the Emilia Romagna regional coast (Italy).

For each site, the objectives for coastal stretches geometry arrangement were set up together with a program of interventions, the estimation of economic resources needed, and suggestions on sustainable exploitation of sediment stocks.