Large scale restoration of coastal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity

General Information

REST-COAST will demonstrate to what extent upscaled coastal restoration can provide a low-carbon adaptation, reducing risks and providing gains in biodiversity for vulnerable coastal ecosystems, such as wetlands or sea grass beds. By overcoming present technical, economic, governance and social barriers to restoration upscaling, REST-COAST will develop the large-scale river-coast connectivity and increase the nearshore accommodation space for the resilient delivery of coastal ecosystem services (ESS). The selected ESS (risk reduction, environmental quality and fish provisioning) touch urgent coastal problems such as the erosion/flooding during recent storms or the accelerating coastal habitat degradation that seriously affects fisheries and aquaculture. By enhancing these ESS under present and future climates at 9 Pilots that represent the main EU regional seas (Baltic, Black, North, Atlantic and Mediterranean) REST-COAST will increase the commitment of citizens, stakeholders and policy makers for a long-term maintenance of restoration. Such commitment will go together with a transformation of governance and financial structures, supported by evidence-based results on restoration benefits for the welfare of coastal societies and assets. This transformation will build upon the results from hands-on restoration at the Pilots, steered by the multidisciplinary project advances. Combining new techniques, risk assessments, innovative financial/governance arrangements and homogeneous metrics for ESS and biodiversity, REST-COAST will develop a systemic approach to coastal restoration based on a scalable coastal adaptation plan. The plan will underpin a transformative change in governance and policies, proving the importance of the coastal dimension in the EU Green Deal for adaptation/mitigation under climate change. The proposed adaptation will facilitate replicating large scale restoration and introducing coastal ESS into national and international policies.

Hereon’s main contribution is in the work package entitled “Climate risk reduction through innovative restoration (warning indicators)” Hereon will produce and provide multi-hazard predictions, including ESS synergies; and new high resolution data under climate change conditions together with multi-risk projections and climate warnings with resilient ESS. Together with other partners/stakeholders in the Wadden Sea Pilot, Hereon will also support the new adaptive management and innovative governance arrangements, including the effect of the proposed services.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	H2020-LC-GD-2020-3 (European Green Deal Call 2020)
Project Type	Innovation Action
Contract Number	Grant Agreement 101037097
Co-ordinator	UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA (ES)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for Hereon (€)
17,823,755	691,062

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Joanna Staneva, Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling, Hydrodynamics and Data Assimilation, KSD, Phone: +49 (0)4152 87-1804 E-mail contact

Participants

ALBIREM Sustainability, S.L. (ES), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici SCARL (IT), Consorcio Centro Internacional de Investigacion de los Recursos Costeros (ES), Consortium for the Management of the Centre of Coordination of Research on the Venice Lagoon System (IT), Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat - Generalitat de Catalunya (ES), Direccion General de la Costa y el Mar (ES), EGIS PORTS (FR), Fondation Tour Du Valat (FR), Fundacio EURECAT (ES), GCF-Global Climate Forum EV (DE), Institut National De Recherche pour L'Agriculture, L'Alimentation et L'Environnement (FR), Institute of Hydroengineering, PAS, Gdansk (PL), Institute of Oceanology - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BG), Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya (IL), Israel Nature and Parks Authority INPA (IL), Konsortium Deutsche Meeresforschung (DE), Mediterranean Protected Areas Network (FR), Mediterranean Sea and Coast Foundation (IT), MedWet (FR), Niedersächsischer Landesbetrieb für Wasserwirtschaft, Küsten- und Naturschutz Betriebsstelle Norden-Norderney (DE), Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (TR), Pensoft Publishers (BG), Pernice Umberto (IT), Province Groningen (NL), Provveditorato Interregionale alle Opere Pubbliche per il Veneto - Trentino Alto Adige - Friuli Venezia Giulia (IT), Sociedad Espanola de Ornitologia SEO (ES), Stichting Deltares (NL), Stichting Ecoshape, Building with Nature (NL), Stichting The Global Center on Adaptation (NL), Stichting Wageningen Research (NL), Union Internationale pour la Conservation de la Nature et de ses Ressources (CH), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES), Universita degli Studi di Catania (IT), Universitat Politecnica De Catalunya (ES), University of East Anglia (UK), University of Lincoln (UK), Wageningen Universiteit (NL)

Last Update: 02. November 2022