Concepts and Science for Coastal Erosion Management. (Coscience)

Description:

Coastal erosion in Europe causes significant economic loss, ecological damage and societal problems. Loss of property, infrastructure and beach width annually causes millions of Euros worth of economic damage, loss of valuable coastal habitat and presents significant management issues. At the same time protection is expensive. Predictions for the effects of climate change suggest that the scale of coastal erosion will increase and therefore there will be knock-on costs for both protection and repair. There is increasing consensus among coastal practitioners and scientists that coastal erosion problem at its source should be addressed. And that is an imbalance in the sediment budgets in the coastal zone. If sand is lost to deeper water, it is not surprising that this can lead to erosion at the coast. Scientific knowledge of coastal processes is already well-developed. Available models and monitoring systems are becoming more sophisticated. Yet at the same time it is very difficult for coastal managers to put this knowledge into practice. In many countries coastline management is weak or even nonexistent. Without clear government policy, lack of sufficient funds and limited public understanding it is hardly surprising that the approach taken to erosion management is primarily through ad hoc arrangements. Such arrangements tend to be temporary in nature and can often prove detrimental to surrounding coastal areas. The EU-FP6 CONSCIENCE project was launched in 2007 with a view to enhancing the implementation of a scientifically based sustainable coastal erosion management in Europe, taking into account climate change impacts. It has been testing scientific concepts and tools in six pilot sites around Europe. It has shown that the sediment balance approach can be applied for almost any coastal type, but that this approach to achieve sustainable coastline management is often hampered by lack of a well-defined and institutionalized government policy for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). The field sites have been selected to represent the most common European coastal types: sand, gravel/shingle and cliffed coasts; high-energy open coasts (Atlantic coasts), medium-energy coasts (North Sea coasts, English Channel coasts) and low-energy coasts (Mediterranean coasts, Baltic Sea coast, Black Sea coasts). To assist implementation of coastal erosion management in local and regional initiatives, CONSCIENCE has tested a systematic framework and has developed : Guidelines for Implementation of Sustainable Coastal Erosion Management in local and regional initiatives.

Project information

Lead

Deltares (The Netherland)

Partners

CIIRC (ES); EUCC Mediterranean Centre (ES); GEOECOMAR (RO); HR Wallingford (UK); IBW PAN (PL); NUIC (IE); UNEP-PAP/RAC (HR)

Source of funding

EC 6th Framework Programme for Research, Technology and Development