GISIG and ICCOPS as an Example of Integration to Address ICAM

Giorgio Saio (1), Emanuele Roccatagliata (2)

(1) GISIG - Geographical Information Systems International Group (IT)
(2) ICCOPS - International Centre for Coastal and Ocean Policy Studies (IT)

Coastal areas play a vital role for most European countries, from the ecological, economical social and cultural point of view. The high human pressure makes them very sensitive either for environmental, or for social issues and calls for a proper policy and effective tools. International and European Policies indicate Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) as the main instrument to reach the sustainable development of coastal areas. On the other side Geo-Information is a key element of knowledge and GIS are actually useful tools to manage it.

Thematic networks, constituted by the different stakeholders involved in the problems and offering complementary contributions to a knowledge based on an interdisciplinary approach, are considered a good answer to the need of a link between the different perspectives in view of common actions. This is as well the current direction of the European Commission in the Framework Programmes.

The GISIG and ICCOPS Associations, operating respectively in the Geographical Information and Coastal Areas Management, are promoting the Thematic Network ICAM-GI, already mentioned in the opening session. ICAM-GI addresses research institutes, universities, companies, local and regional bodies and any other stakeholder operating in the ICAM and GI domains. The aim is to enhance an effective forum for discussion among GI and Coastal Management scientists and operators, assuming a GIS based interdisciplinary approach for a structured knowledge of coastal landscape, able to effectively impact on coastal governance and planning.

The CoastGIS '03 conference is for GISIG and ICCOPS a demonstration of operativeness of ICAM-GI, whose first idea was proposed some years ago during another important scientific event, the "Education and Training in Integrated Coastal Area Management" Conference, organised as an Italian contribution to the International Year of the Ocean. Next step will be the European "Marie Curie" project "ECO-IMAGINE- European Conferences and forum for Integrated coastal Management and Geo-Information Research" of the 6th EU Framework Programme, to organise a series of eight scientific Conferences and Training Courses in six European Countries.

The initiative will run with an interdisciplinary approach in order to better integrate the different coastal aspects and a science based approach will be ensured by a state of art employment of GIS. Relevance is given by the project to planning and management of coastal landscape as the meeting point between natural and human features of the coast.

ECO-IMAGINE after CoastGIS'03 and starting from early 2004 has to be considered as an operational framework made of scheduled events to allow the pursued better integration of research in the ICAM and GI domains, with an exchange of competencies and experiences to support the definition and the bootstrap of new initiatives in the field.