Future Earth Coasts
FUTURE EARTH COASTS (FEC) is a project to support sustainability and adaptation to global change in the coastal zone.
Their goal is to strengthen the science-policy interface and contribute to securing sustainable coastal futures in the new epoch called the Anthropocene. They aim to develop a scientific and technological community from all disciplines for the co-design and co-production of knowledge that will engage with policymakers, business, industry and other stakeholders.
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the Future Earth Coasts project
Future Earth Coasts is a core project of Future Earth. Aligned to the structure of strategic and integrated Earth system research under Future Earth, their work is organized in three inter-related themes:
Dynamic coasts
Coastal systems and regional seas are constantly changing as a result of biophysical and socio‐economic activities. Work will focus on synthesizing existing understanding of the changing state of coasts in terms of risks and future trends and can include:
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Building on the LOICZ sediment model by adding the ecosystem, geomorphology and governance dimension
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Identifying socio-economic drivers of change on the coast
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Developing typologies of coastal vulnerability and resilience at various spatial and temporal scales
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Application of ecosystem models for assessing impact of anthropogenic activities on coastal biodiversity and resultant future changes in ecosystem productivity in hotspots
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Identifying and assessing links and feedbacks between social and ecological systems in the coastal zone
Human development and coasts
Coastal change potentially threatens human well‐being. This WG will synthesize the impacts of coastal change on economy and society to understand the interactions between vulnerabilities at the local, regional and global scale, and can include:
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The development of biophysical constraint models for sustainable development goals
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Ecological economics
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Studies of wellbeing
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Sustainability indicators
Pathways to coastal sustainability
Identifying and choosing possible pathways to sustainability. Work will identify horizon scanning/scenario processes to identify options for societal transitions towards sustainability. Furthermore, it will aim to understand how society, and its institutions, can be empowered to make decisions that resolve conflicts and lead to increased action and behavioural change, and can include:
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Development and application of methodologies for governance baseline assessments taking into consideration incorporation of ICZM practices in coastal management
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Global comparative analysis of decision making processes in the coastal zone
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Discourse analysis and participatory frameworks
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Stakeholder mapping
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Behavioural sciences, psychology
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Devising science-based adaptive management addressing adverse impacts in the coastal zone
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Cataloging bright spots and dark spots of decision making at the coast
Their vision is to support transformation to a sustainable and resilient future for society and nature on the coast by facilitating innovative, integrated, collaborative and impactful research and knowledge mobilization.
A COMMUNITY
Future Earth Coasts is first and foremost a ‘community’ of organisations, scientists and practitioners from all disciplines of science, engineering, the humanities and law whose work addresses Global Environmental Change, contributes to achieving the SDGs and social learning. FEC therefore provide a platform for networking, delivering ‘added value’ to the outputs of our community to explore and understand the drivers and social-environmental impacts of global environmental change in coastal zones.
A PLATFORM
FEC are building a global platform for international scientific collaboration that:
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Strengthens global partnerships between researchers, funders and users of research
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Enables integrated research on grand challenges and transformations to sustainability
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Communicates science to society and society to science
FECs' CHALLENGES
FEC are a core project of Future Earth. Their work, in partnership with other Future Earth Core Projects, is structured to support the delivery of science-derived solutions that address global environmental and societal challenges, and designed to broaden global change science to promote a transition to sustainability.
The challenges of achieving sustainable development are complex and interrelated questions centred on how to balance:
Equity | Justice | Resilience | Economic opportunity | Infrastructure development | Ecological management | And more
FEC's hotspots
Future Earth Coasts has identified critical features of coastal systems [Hotspots] that are particularly vulnerable to coastal change and critical to the sustainability of coastal socio-ecological systems.
Small Islands are vulnerable to global and climate change including extreme events, sea-level rise and the risk of inundation, population pressure and issues of decreased ecological diversity e.g. in coral reefs, mangroves. Vulnerable human communities on islands require transformational approaches to deal with a diminishing and degrading terrestrial and marine resource base.
Urbanisation is a process shaping human well-being and ecological integrity today, with a concentration of issues often found in coastal megacities. This topic is acquiring new urgency with rapid migration to coastal megacities and urban areas.
The Arctic is experiencing rapid loss of ice and permafrost is thawing, accelerating coastal ero-sion, damaging infrastructure, and inhibiting access to food, with negative impacts on tradi-tional lifestyles, health and wellbeing. Vulnerable Arctic coastal communities need transform-ative strategies and enhanced capacity to adapt and transition to safer futures.
River mouth systems such as deltas and estuaries, and lagoons, are at risk from climate change and sea-level rise, damming of rivers, seawater intrusion, groundwater and other fluid extraction, acidification of estuaries and intensifying anthropogenic activity, which increases the fluxes of nutrients and contaminants with negative impacts on the wellbeing of ecosystems and human health.