Networking perspective and forthcoming activity

Giorgio Saio

GISIG (I)

Abstract

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 Zone Management (ICZM) 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 an efficacious answer to the need of a link between the different perspectives in view of common actions.

The GISIG and ICCOPS Associations, operating respectively in the Geographical Information and Coastal Areas Management, have promoted the Thematic Network ICAM-GI. 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.

After the success of the CoastGIS '03 conference, demonstrating the operativeness of ICAM-GI, has now started the "Marie Curie" project ECO-IMAGINE within the 6th EU Framework Programme, to organise a series of eight scientific Conferences and Training Courses in six European Countries with a duration of four years, with the aim of establishing a Forum for linking the ICAM and GI Communities, offering a meaningful opportunity to create a Network of people and organisations operating in the two domains and to exploit the complementarity of their knowledge.

In Seville, the first Conference addressed the state of the art of GI in the field of coastal management and started the three leading Working Groups of ECO-IMAGINE: i) Building Coastal Knowledge, ii) Coastal Governance, Planning and Design and iii) The Waterfront management.

The present Conference while "affiliated" to the second working Group has been as well an occasion to reinforce the ECO-IMAGINE partnership and network of researchers and to have an introduction to the "working way" of the administration in the field of coastal management.

ECO-IMAGINE has then 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. Among the opportunities already considered, the third call of the 6th Framework Programme Thematic Priority "Sustainable Development and Global Change" are presented, together with other possible forthcoming opportunities in the MARIE Curie action and within the Earth Observation and INSPIRE initiatives. The linkage with Oceans 21 will be also recalled and discussed.

The following steps of the ECO-IMAGINE project are also illustrated: the collection of the presentations and contributions delivered for the first EuroConference, the organisation of the ECO-IMAGINE Virtual Permanent Conference, as well as the next ECO-IMAGINE EuroEvents and the new opportunities for the Researchers.