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The CONSCIENCE project, results and outcomes. 12 April 2010 Marcel Marchand. EU 6th Framework RTD. Call SSP5-A (Scientific support to policies):
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The CONSCIENCE project, results and outcomes 12 April 2010 Marcel Marchand
EU 6th Framework RTD Call SSP5-A (Scientific support to policies): ‘to support the formulation and implementation of Community Policies, by providing scientific contributions to policies that are targeted precisely on needs, coherent across the various Community policy areas, and sensitive to changes in policies as they take place’. Scientific Officer: • Dr. Karen FABBRI (till 1 April 2010) • Nicoleta-Ariana NASTASEANU (from 1 April)
Rationale • EUROSION project: • DG Env. 2002-2004 • recommendation 1: restoring the sediment balance and providing space for coastal processes • introduction of 4 concepts: • coastal sediment cell • favourable sediment status • strategic sediment reservoir • coastal resilience
Pilot sites 1: Holland coast (the Netherlands) 2: Hel peninsula (Poland) 3: Danube Delta coast (Romania) 4: Costa Brava (Spain) 5: Pevensey Bay (United Kingdom) 6: Inch Beach (Ireland)
Ultimate goal of project Make coastal erosion concepts... (resilience, sediment cells, sediment reservoir, favourable sediment status) operational for management... (EU context, different coasts, different management settings, ICZM, sustainability) that is scientifically justified... (knowledge, data, models, tools)
Main challenges Science – Policy interface: • Complexity of physical processes and social context • Uncertainty: models • Time and space scales • End user involvement
Key issues and concepts • Coastal resilience • Sediment cells • Strategic Sediment Reservoir • Favourable Sediment Status • Frame of Reference
Main findings • Eurosion concepts are mixture of scientific and policy connotations • they are useful if: • temporal and spatial boundaries are explicit • objectives for coastal erosion management are made explicit 100 Grow with sea level 10 Hold the line Time (years) 1 Safety 0.1 0.1 1 10 100 space (km)
Hybrid concepts system property (‘science’) equilibrium profile • Coastal resilience • Favourable sediment status • Strategic sed. reservoir • Coastal cell strategic objective (‘policy’) sediment budget (‘science’) favourable for what? (‘policy’) sediment budget (‘science’) when strategic? (‘policy’) sediment processes (‘science’: e.g. depth of closure) time horizon (‘policy’)
FoR as guidance Frame of Reference method: useful to guide erosion management • makes objectives clear • shows management steps • role of knowledge becomes clear • shows need for institutional arrangements (who is responsible for what?)
Measures: Set back lines • needed for resilience • trade off between risks and economic profit • risk lines requires modelling
Sand nourishments • resilient / adaptive to sea level rise • requires monitoring/models • requires well established institutionalised erosion management
Hard structures • robust / resistant • side effects • not adaptive to sea level rise
350 35 d50=0.15 mm 300 30 d50=0.2 mm d50=0.25 mm d50=0.3 mm 250 25 d50=0.4 mm d50=0.5 mm 200 20 d50=1 mm Dune erosion area above SSL (m3/m) Hs,o= 4 to 8 m 150 15 Dune recession (m) Tp=7 to 12 s 100 10 50 5 0 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Storm surge level above MSL (m) Erosion models • physical scale experiments • mathematical models • simple reprofunctions
Data and monitoring • great variety of monitoring methods • coastal state indicators (CSI) are key to effective monitoring programme examples of CSI: • dune strength • beach width • shoreline position
European perspective • Implementation Eurosion concepts in Europe often hampered by lack of explicit objectives for erosion policy • Existing EU Directives on floods, water and sea do not address the coastal erosion problem
Main conclusions Coastal practitioners: • use Eurosion concepts and FoR as guidance • formulate CSI’s for benchmarking and monitoring National level: • formulate coastal erosion policies and objectives EU level: • integrate Eurosion recommendations in EU policies and directives
Coastal resilience • Is resilience a natural state of the coast? • What about natural receding or accreting coasts? • Which time scales are we looking at? • Not applicable to soft cliff coasts?! • Resilience is not an aim in itself but a means to arrive at sustainability.
Coastal Sediment Cell • How to delineate a CSC? • How do CSC’s behave in time? • Cross-boundary problems / administrative boundary does not coincide
Favourable Sediment Status • How to define? • Who decides what is favourable? • Which parameters to measure? • Which Coastal State Indicators?
Strategic Sediment Reservoir • When is a sediment deposit strategic? • Who decides? • What are the consequences if sediment is considered inside or outside the reservoir? • How to deal with distant sources (e.g. river catchments)?