CELTS, ROMANS AND COASTS:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COASTGIS INITIATIVE

Ron Furness (1), Darius Bartlett (2)

(1) International Cartographic Association's Commission on Marine Cartography
(2) International Geographical Union's Commission on Coastal Systems and Department of Geography, University College Cork

Abstract
The first four conferences, without any deliberate design on the part of those involved in their organisation, carried a Celtic connection: Ireland (Cork, 1995), Scotland (Aberdeen, 1997), France (Brest, 1999) and, more modernly, Canada (Halifax, 2001). In 2003 we find ourselves back in Europe, on the Ligurian coast, in Italy with its long coastline and coastal traditions, where we shall be hosted by our Italian friends, no doubt in the manner of the Celts. At this fifth symposium and after a decade, it seems worthwhile reviewing the brief history of the event. This is the aim of this brief paper, which does not claim to be anything more than a personal chronicle followed by some personal prognostications.

Preamble
The title of this paper was conceived in an effort to highlight the perceived Celtic connections of the first four venues, first noted by Andy Sherin while preparing for CoastGIS held in Halifax in 2001. The Celtic connections are perhaps clear for Cork, Aberdeen, Brest and Halifax but to the authors, were less so for Genoa, hence the inclusion of "Romans" in the title.

Imagine the authors' delight to have since discovered that there is indeed a Celtic link to northern Italy dating back prior to 400 BCE, although this date is the more generally accepted one for what appears to have been a great invasion of migrating Celtic tribes into northern Italy. According to our trusty Encyclopaedia Britannica, these tribes were recorded by Latin scholars as being the Insubres, Boii, Senones and Lingones. Rome was, in fact, sacked by the Celts around 390 BCE and wandering bands of Celts reached as far south as Sicily. The Celts in the north (south of the Alps) remained a constant threat to Rome until their defeat at Telamon in 225 BCE.

We are well situated for this gathering on the Ligurian coastline and in this historic city of Genoa, as some scholars at least, claim a Celtic language influence on the development of the original Ligurian language. The Celts no doubt travelled largely overland in Europe but it is tempting to imagine curraghs (or coracles) being used for fishing once the coasts were reached. It is hard to claim more than a practical or functional link with the coastal regions. Nevertherless, there are, according to the Britannica, some tangible Celtic

Source: http://member.rivernet.com.au/manxman/Celts/ancient.htm

links to this series of meetings. Beer was the Celts most common drink and they were "hospitable, fond of feasting, drinking and quarrelling …". Thus we believe that the hospitality of our hosts will be in true Celtic spirit and so the Celtic link will be maintained. We interpret "quarrelling" to mean "friendly, serious discussion".

Background
The idea for a series of symposia entitled CoastGIS was born from the fruitful ideas of Darius Bartlett in discussions with Ron Furness following their first meeting at an International Cartographic Conference in Cologne, Germany during 1993. A few years previously, the former had proposed a new project on "Coastal GIS" to the Commission on the Coastal Environment (now the Commission on Coastal Systems) of the International Geographical Union. This project had been adopted by the IGU, and had already led to publication of an annotated bibliography (Bartlett, 1993a), a position paper (Bartlett, 1993b) and collaboration in the preparation and publication of a tutorial workbook on the topic (St. Martin, 1993). The next obvious task identified for the project was to find a vehicle in which coastal issues and technological processes could be examined. Meanwhile, Ron Furness had been leading the working group (subsequently elevated to a full Commission) on Marine Cartography of the International Cartographic Association, and was seeking a similar means by which recent advances in the mapping of the world's coastal zones could find an outlet. Both were particularly interested in the then early potential of Geographic Information Systems in offering, as they did, great opportunities for data access, manipulation and presentation as well as data management for those entrusted with making decisions that impacted on the use of the world's coasts by humans.

The title "CoastGIS" was suggested by Darius Bartlett and the first Symposium of the series came to fruition, after many hundreds of faxes and letters (this was, after all, in the relatively early days of the Internet, and e-mail was still far from being the commonplace means of global communication that we see today) between the authors, one in Ireland and the other in the Antipodes, and was held successfully at University College Cork in February 1995.

The first meeting in Cork
The first meeting in Cork was convened at the University College, Cork between 3rd - 5th February, 1995. As an event it was part of the University College Cork celebrations marking its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. The organisers were delighted to achieve an attendance that, with the inclusion of local researchers and students, approached the 160 mark, with delegates coming from as far afield as Mexico, South Africa and Australia. There was no particular sub-theme other than the title, which has remained: The International Symposium on GIS and Computer Mapping for Coastal Zone Mapping. The Proceedings (1995) were published (ISBN: 0 646 24091 9) and rapidly became a collectors' item. There are no remaining copies available but the authors will provide copies of papers on request. It remains a goal that the full set of papers will eventually appear on the http://www.coastgis.org/ website.

At the meeting, we had the honour of being addressed in a keynote presentation by Lord Chorley, who referred in his address to the House of Commons Environment Select Committee's 1992 Report on coastal zone protection and planning. Reflecting on the findings of that Report (Furness 1995), Lord Chorley was struck by three main points.

First, it is only in recent years that the coastal zone has been recognised as one important topic in its own right. Second, the huge range of relevant aspects or considerations. (Thirdly): the huge number of agencies involved, often with overlapping and perhaps incompatible responsibilities, jurisdictions and objectives."

The reader will no doubt be well aware of the amazing developments of GIS capability over the last decade in particular. Nonetheless, the development of standards, formats and data models together with the sheer genius of GIS technological developments and ultimate cost effectiveness are perhaps still hampered by the paucity of available data sets. Many of the same questions seemed to be coming up again at the recently held CoastalGIS 2003 at the University of Wollongong, Australia in July 2003 (Proceedings forthcoming, Woodroffe and Furness), indicating that data issues continue to dominate the coastal GIS agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given that the 1995 CoastGIS meeting was a pioneering event in what was then (and to a certain extent remains) very much a specialist and minority branch of GIS, a large part of the conference programme was devoted to comparing notes and defining the "state of the art" among a very heterogenous set of interest groups, most of whom had had little opportunity to gather in the one forum before. The meeting was well attended by senior people from major organisations such as the International Hydrographic Organisation, the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, the Admiralty Hydrographic Office and the British Geological Survey, most of whom gave presentations that reported what these organisations were doing in the realm of the coastal zone. A number of more "academic" papers were also presented and were well received, and a number of specific utilisations of GIS in the coastal zone were reported. Database examples were given and examples of mapping projects and techniques were shared. Early modelling of dynamic phenomena, such as wave behaviour and potential coastal impact were considered.

Thus the "flavour" of the future meetings was set. Proceedings have tended to be more or less of these main categories: reports of activities, programs and developments; academic issues and research; GIS techniques; and issues relating to data availability, exchange, formatting and use.

One thing that came out from the presentations was the acceptance of GIS as being a useful technological tool for considering coastal zone issues, from management to specific modelling and research issues. A discussion session concluded that that the meetings and focus were indeed useful and it was suggested that the meetings needed to continue and a gathering be planned for every other year.


The second meeting in Aberdeen
The second meeting was convened at the University of Aberdeen between 29th - 31st August 1997. From memory around 120 delegates attended plus local researchers and students. The sub-theme was "The Next Millennium". The Proceedings were made available to delegates in loose-leaf mode and have recently formed the basis for a publication by Green and King (2003).

European moves towards the development of coastal zone initiatives was a dominant feature of this gathering. Again we shared research projects and techniques, discussed database ideas and data usage, and started to see the modelling of pollutants and tidal phenomena. We were made aware, if only by the increased sophistication brought to the table in the techniques and combination of different data sets, that GIS had already developed quite markedly in the two years since the Cork meeting.

Again we were able to enjoy a mixture of presentations, some institutional and wider-ranging, some research-based and more specific in focus. Data was again a major issue, and a number of presenters made a cri de coeur for appropriate data sets being made more readily available, or at least the metadata for such data sets. It was becoming clear that GIS was definitely accepted in coastal zone management and mapping and that there was probably no great imperative to keep stating the case for its use and application.

The third meeting in Brest
The third meeting in Brest was convened at the establishment of IFREMER between 9th - 11th September 1999. The sub-theme was "Geomatics and Coastal Environment", and around 150 or so delegates participatedplus some locals. The Proceedings were made available to delegates in loose-leaf mode and 25 of the papers were selected, reviewed, edited, and formed the basis for the publication of a more formal volume (Populus and Loubersac, 2000).

We started to hear that some major institutions were starting to use GIS in variously sophisticated ways. It was obvious that GIS was becoming more capable and user friendly though data access and numerous other issues remained unresolved. One notable development at the 1999 CoastGIS was the level of participation and interest in coastal GIS from members of the hydrographic community, particularly as seen in the emergent ECDIS (Electronic Chart and Display Information Systems) technologies. The convergence of GIS technologies and analytical methods, with traditional methods of marine charting, showed eloquently that GIS applications in hydrography had come a long way, and were now offering dynamic real-time use of the databased information for an increasingly sophisticated range of applications. Data acquisition was similarly becoming more sophisticated, with the use of airborne laser; and the web was starting to be discussed as a means for delivering data - free and freely! Also at Brest, a number of research projects were presented that started to consider the regulatory aspects of data in the coastal zone.

Despite these advances, data remained a perennial concern. The meeting ended with a Panel Session, the edited proceedings of which are also included in the Populus and Loubersac publication (2000). At this session, (p. 307) it was recorded that:

Several interesting themes … (came) out of (the) conference, of which the most significant (were) those relating to coastal data. This topic (was) addressed from a number of perspectives, and speakers … examined definitions of data: semantics, the design and use of data dictionaries, semiotics (that is the symbolism or meaning) of data; and also metadata and standards.

However, while these data-oriented issues remained the focus for many people, we started to see a general opening-up and broadening of Coastal GIS concerns and we can see in the 1999 CoastGIS discussions the forerunners of a gradual shift of interest to more holistic, integrated spatial data infrastructures for the coast. Thus, at Brest, notions of interoperability were brought out for the first time, and it is notable that already the debate extended well beyond just the interoperability of the data: far greater emphasis was placed on the overall systems aspect of GIS application, as well as the importance of standards to facilitate such integration, legal implications, regulatory issues, training and education and, especially for the Developing World, the role of technology transfer. All were identified as areas needing attention.

The fourth meeting in Halifax
The fourth meeting, in Halifax, Canada, was convened at Saint Mary's University between 18th - 20th June 2001. We recall that there were around 170 or so delegates with locals and researchers. The sub-theme was "Geomatics and Coastal Environment". The Proceedings were made available to delegates as Abstracts and can be seen at http://www.coastgis.org/proceedings2001.html; while an edited volume of papers from this meeting, plus a number of additionally commissioned contributions, is currently under preparation (Bartlett and Smith, forthcoming). Notably, for the first time, there was sufficient financial support that enabled the local organisers to contribute to the attendance and participation costs of delegates from India, Nigeria, Cameroon, Colombia (2), Brazil and Mexico (2).

The significance of the contributions of was maintained. Environmental analysis was emphasised as was the use of temporal data sets. Various methods for mapping shorelines was exposed and discussed. Pollution issues were focused upon by some researchers. Resource applications, such as fisheries management, were dominant in a number of presentations. There were field trips to an educational institution and the Bay of Fundy where we considered the coastal issues arising from such a severe tidal regime. The development within Canada at all levels of GIS application which makes serious attempts to make data available in an integrated fashion, formed the basis for the learning processes derived from this meeting

Overall, the shift in emphasis towards integration of systems for coastal management, and the growing interest in coastal SDI as noted above, were especially in evidence at this meeting. So too was the international dimension of coastal GIS: as well as the stalwart regulars from nations such as France, the US, Canada, UK and other European countries, many of whom had attended most, or in some cases all, previous CoastGIS meetings, in Halifax we were joined by new colleagues from countries such as India, Ecuador, Togo, Greenland and Colombia.


Prognostications
As we write, it is fairly clear that CoastGIS as a gathering will be around for the foreseeable future. Perhaps the main intangible, but nonetheless very real, benefit from the series of gatherings has been the camaraderie and consequent networking of many of the main contributors. We have also seen the stature of CoastGIS increase over the years, from a relatively low-key and informal meeting run on a shoe-string budget in Cork in 1995, to the present gathering here in Genoa where the meeting has the endorsement and support of an array of international and national scientific and professional organisations, including the International Geographical Union, the International Cartographic Association, the International Oceanographic Commission, the European Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA), the Association for Geographical Information (UK) and the European Union for Coastal Conservation (the Coastal Union), as well as from the commercial sector in the form of the software vendors (Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) and Intergraph) and the Mediterranean Gas and Water Agency, AMGA. We also acknowledge, of course, the equally-important local support for this meeting from the University of Genova, the Comune di Genova and, especially, our hosts the Geographical Information Systems International Group (GISIG) and the International Centre for Coastal and Ocean Policy Studies (ICCOPS).

The continual bringing together of practitioners and researchers and GIS developers under a banner that focuses on coastal zone issues seems to bring about synergistic effects, that continue to resonate for the ensuing period from one CoastGIS meeting to the next. All attendees tend to agree that they benefit from such a focus. The keen admixture of persons at all levels of seniority or youthfulness, meeting together in a relaxed and friendly collegiate environment seems to afford the best sort of learning environment.

While it is clear now that GIS has "come of age", it is also clear that application of GIS to coastal issues remains a challenging endeavour. Progress has been made but, at the same time coastal problems themselves are, if anything, increasing in urgency for our attention. It seems likely that addressing such problems will increasingly require trans-national and trans-disciplinary solutions. Europe, with its complexities at all levels, both demonstrates the urgency of the task and also, through its Framework Programmes and other supporting measures, encourages the quest for solutions to these needs. And, looking beyond the shores of Europe, there are also many things happening in other parts of the world of significance to our endeavours. Through a vibrant and continuing CoastGIS Symposium series, we will continue to try to attract those who can keep us informed and up-to-date with what is going on.

At the time of writing it seems we will continue with a possible offering of a meeting in the Caribbean in 2005 and a fairly definite offer to conduct a gathering in Australia in 2007. Judging from the makeup of the early white invaders of Australia, and the number of Irish pubs, we know that the Celtic links tradition will be maintained.

We believe that symposia such as the CoastGIS series have more than "done their bit" in promoting the notion of coastal zones as well as highlighting many of the impacting issues which are so significant for the future management of our coasts. In bringing about, as they do, a sharing international environment, free of many of the constraints frequently present in more formalised gatherings, they offer a supportive venue in which practitioners and academics can compare their works and techniques. There remains, as Lord Chorley identified, an extraordinarily large range of relevant aspects or considerations: hardly any human activity occurs without some impact, ultimately, on the world's fragile coastal zones. One thing that has remained true is the huge number of agencies with some jurisdiction and impact on coastal zones. Incredibly not all these agencies may well even be aware of their ultimate responsibilities to the coasts.

We conclude that there remains a definite need for such gatherings. We firmly believe that the networks they engender bring about positive changes in the way people approach their work around the coasts, be it academic, practical or planning. We trust that the support will continue to come and ensure the viability of this and future offerings.

Sydney and Cork, 2003

References