Abstract
Coastal zones are under severe pressure from anthropogenic activities, as well as on-going climate change with associated sea level rise and increased storminess. These challenges call for integrated and forward looking solutions. The concept on Integrated Coastal Zone Management, as defined during the last twenty years, provides the overall policy frames, but tools to support the planning and management efforts are almost lacking. Furthermore, the forward-looking dimension to embrace the effects of climate change is nearly absent in most implementations. The BLAST project, financed by the European Union Regional Fund through the INTERREG IV North Sea Region Programme, aimed at developing a web-based decision support system to assist Integrated Coastal Zone Management from a climate change perspective, and the current paper describes the methods used and the computing platform for implementing a decision support system. The software applied in developing the system is mainly Open Source components, thus, facilitating a more widespread use of the system.
Highlights
The coastal zone represents the narrow transitional zone between the land and the sea, and this zone is characterized by highly diverse ecosystems for example beaches, dunes, cliffs, and wetland
The current paper focuses on the integrated coastal zone management part of the project, which aimed at developing a decision-support system to assist Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) under changing climatic conditions
The Coastal Indicator System (COINS) system is comparatively easy to use and a draft version of the system was presented at a two-day stakeholder workshop, in Copenhagen, Spring 2012, for practical coastal planners and managers aiming at receiving feedback and ideas to be included in the final version of COINS
Summary
The coastal zone represents the narrow transitional zone between the land and the sea, and this zone is characterized by highly diverse ecosystems for example beaches, dunes, cliffs, and wetland. The coastal areas would be affected by sea level rise as any changes in storm surges and wave heights. They would be affected by changes inland, including alterations in river flow regimes. The coastal zone is susceptible to one of the most certain impacts of anthropogenic induced climate change—the accelerated sea level rise, which leads to flooding and enhanced erosion. Other possible coastal implications of climate change, which will interact with sea-level rise, include changing storm frequency and intensity, changing patterns of run-off, and more intense rainfall events [4]. The current paper focuses on the integrated coastal zone management part of the project, which aimed at developing a decision-support system to assist Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) under changing climatic conditions. The last section provides the conclusion of the research carried out and present ideas for subsequent work
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