ECO-IMAGINE

ECO-IMAGINE is a group of 8 events on the complementarity between Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) and Geo-information/GIS as support tool.
The initiative runs with an interdisciplinary approach in order to better integrate the different coastal aspects; a science based approach, as per the Johannesburg 2002 Summit, is ensured by a state of art employment of GIS.
Relevance is given to planning and management of coastal landscape as the meeting point between natural and human features of the coast.
3 Working Groups are foreseen, to address the main features in this field:

  • Building Coastal Knowledge and GI. Analyses and monitoring of coastal realities exploiting the employment of GIS, as analyses functional to an ICM programme and as assessment tool
  • Coastal Governance, Planning and Design and GI. ICM programmes evolution and its issues in the GIS perspective. In particular uses of coastal resources, impacts on environment, relations between the actors, assessment methodology, evolution of local policies/ planning toward ICM
  • The Waterfront Management and GI. Integrated management and planning of waterfront as core areas for the sustainable development of a wider context. In particular will be emphasised the role of GIS in integrating waterfronts into the territorial scale

A 4th cross-cutting working group deals with the technological features of GI and their applications in the various fields of ICM.
ECO-IMAGINE consists of:

  • two general conferences: the initial one to introduce the theme, the objectives and the Working Groups; the last one to make a summary of the events and of the initiative achievements
  • three thematic conferences focusing issues and state of the art relevant to each Working Group
  • three Training Courses in order to practically approach the themes discussed
    An effective network building and generation of added value is ensured by proper tools as the website and a Virtual Permanent Conference as discussion forum and as reference thematic repository