Funded Projects 2014-2020

Project COAST

Project Acronym	COAST
Project Title	Sustainable Resilient Coasts
Project subsite	COAST

Summary

Where? Coastal zones are at the frontline of sustainability challenges; arising from the exploitation of natural resources such as fish stocks, loss of cultural heritage, changing demographics, waste disposal, and climate change impacts. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA). The coast is one of the most significant unifying habitats in the region.

What? It is imperative to build the resilience of coastal communities around the world, and in the Arctic and northern periphery in particular. The project will provide a roadmap for protecting, promoting and developing the cultural and natural heritage of sparsely populated and remote coastal communities. Local authorities play a pivotal role in enabling resilience building and coastal sustainability. The project will produce a COAST Toolbox for local authorities, focusing on SMART Blue Growth, which is based on principles of sustainability, mitigation, planning, adaptation, resilience and transition.

How? COAST-project seeks to establish the NPA region as a demonstration of how to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the coast. The project brings together five partners and six associate partners from Iceland, Finland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. The approach includes four demonstration cases, addressing the challenges of sparsely populated, remote coastal communities. Each case is strongly supported through the partners, associates and letters of support, to ensure effective delivery and implementation at the local authority level. COAST applies a three step conceptual framework called Our Coastal Futures, designed to:
i) Enable regional stakeholders and institutions to develop a common understanding of future coastal scenarios;
ii) Craft robust strategies for charting a desired coastal future; and
iii) Create mechanism to achieve these desired outputs

Objectives

The project objectives are:

to identify who needs to be involved and how to engage stakeholders to support an organization or community towards a particular change
to deliver practical guidance on how new surveying technologies can help support sustainable development at the coast
to operationalise the Our Coastal Futures approach to build capacity towards sustainable development at the coast

Impacts

Intangible

Building institutional capacity:	COAST has explored the use of drone technology for sustainable coastal management, monitoring, and future development. Targeting local authorities, the project developed a Sustainable Resilient Coasts Toolkit and a Guidance that supports public bodies in transitioning to sustainable coastal development. 4 case studies demonstrate the various uses of drone technology for resilience building and coastal sustainability in line with the UN´s SDG.
Raising awareness:	COAST reached out to the local people in each country and built connections between them. In Oulu, Finland, the project engaged with young people via Climate Coffee Break an online meeting, in Iceland the public was invited to share their opinion on coastal development via interviews and workshops, and in Northern Ireland 3 people from local community were trained to film natural and cultural heritage site. COAST has also been shared as part of the news series Stories of Cooperation for Greener Europe at Interreg.eu
Changing attitude and behaviour:	The project highlighted the importance of the participation of local communities in spatial planning, to increase awareness and ownership of valuable heritage and natural resources. The potential and benefits of using the drone technology were presented to local authorities, for example when assessing the quality and quantity of the emerging coastal resource – seaweed.

Building institutional capacity:

COAST has explored the use of drone technology for sustainable coastal management, monitoring, and future development. Targeting local authorities, the project developed a Sustainable Resilient Coasts Toolkit and a Guidance that supports public bodies in transitioning to sustainable coastal development. 4 case studies demonstrate the various uses of drone technology for resilience building and coastal sustainability in line with the UN´s SDG.

Raising awareness:

COAST reached out to the local people in each country and built connections between them. In Oulu, Finland, the project engaged with young people via Climate Coffee Break an online meeting, in Iceland the public was invited to share their opinion on coastal development via interviews and workshops, and in Northern Ireland 3 people from local community were trained to film natural and cultural heritage site. COAST has also been shared as part of the news series Stories of Cooperation for Greener Europe at Interreg.eu

Changing attitude and behaviour:

The project highlighted the importance of the participation of local communities in spatial planning, to increase awareness and ownership of valuable heritage and natural resources.

The potential and benefits of using the drone technology were presented to local authorities, for example when assessing the quality and quantity of the emerging coastal resource – seaweed.

Lead Partner

Agricultural University of Iceland
Iceland
Christian Schultze
phone +354 843 5350
e-mail: christian@lbhi.is

Partners

Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust
Northern Ireland
Mayo County Council
Ireland
Oulu University of Applied Sciences
Finland
University College Cork
Ireland

Project Info

Theme
Marine, maritime, coastal zones, waterways

Priority
4 Natural and Cultural Heritage

Objective
4 Increased capacity for sustainable environmental management

Project duration
29-02-20 to 27-02-22

Total budget
99 014 EUR

NPA co-financing
638 231 EUR

Target groups
local public authority
regional public authority
national public authority
General public

Joint Secretariat Desk Officer
Kirsti Mijnhijmer