News

Date: 04 November 2020

COASTAL was presented at the Baltic Sea Day Conference by Stockholm University (SU) (the MAL3 lead partner)

Stockholm University, as a co-lead partner for the Greek MAL2 case in COASTAL, has developed a modelling approach based on coupled water and salt balance equations to estimate currently unknown water exchange fluxes through the Gialova coastal lagoon, Greece.

As you might remember, COASTAL was one of the winners of the #EUinMyRegion competition for which the project received 300 postcards for dissemination purposes.

In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Greece, like many other countries, applied mobility restrictions to reduce the spread of the infection. These restrictions have seriously tested the resilience of local societies and local economies. SW Messinia, where our case study area is located has an economy which is largely based on agriculture and tourism and both sectors have been greatly affected by the mobility restrictions at a global scale.

Stockholm University has just published their article on how coastal water quality is affected by nutrient pollution and hydroclimatic effects in the journal of Ocean & Coastal Management. 

Globally, irrigation is responsible for about 70% of water demand. As the water in semi-arid regions becomes scarcer and food demands rise with population growth, the need for closely managing water resources used for irrigated agriculture increases.

Early September, COASTAL hosted a session at the bi-annual iEMSs conference of the Environmental Modelling and Software Society, this year organized by the Free University of Brussels - VUB in a digital format. The goal of session A3 – bringing local and expert knowledge together - was to explore the opportunities and difficulties of bringing local and expert knowledge together, with a special focus on the application of system dynamics modelling. Different researchers (both from within and outside our consortium) presented their view on this theme, followed by a discussion on how we can improve the combination of both types of expertise.

The sustainable development of the Mar Menor coastal lagoon (SE Spain) depends strongly on the balance and interactions between inland agriculture, coastal tourism, salt pans and fisheries. The need to move towards sustainable modes of agriculture and tourism is increasingly recognized and recently revived strongly due to sudden increase in contamination levels resulting in a strong drop in tourism. Model-based holistic assessments can help identify potential solutions that consider the impacts on all sectors involved.

On July 3 2020, Jean-Luc gave an interview on a topic concerning the impact of land-use change, modelled with the VITO Ruimtemodel, on coastal campings near the coastal town of Bredene, a tourist resort along the Belgian coast.  These campings have an important social function for less wealthy tourists who cannot afford to buy an apartment or book a hotel room.  Under some scenarios, these campings could disappear due to ongoing urbanization. 

Below you can watch the full interview and read the transcript in English.

Click here for the video

We are very pleased to inform you that we have just released the 3rd issue of the COASTAL Project Newsletter. You may access and browse or download the PDF version here.

Date: 2-3 June 2020

Venue: Jastarnia, Hel Peninsula, Poland (held online)

Date: 4-8 May 2020 Venue: Vienna, Austria (held online)