Coastal erosion is a phenomenon that has significant effects on the marine-land area of the Coastal Zones. The deterioration or complete destruction of coasts affects the marine and land environment, fishing, and exploitation of the marine region and the social and economic life of the inhabitants of the region. The problem is even greater where infrastructure, at a central and local level, is congested, different coastal management responsibilities overlap, there are pressures to increase urbanisation resulting in holiday homes throughout the various regions, the change in previously intended use of land, growth in tourism, intensive fish-breeding, as well as planning and implementation of large infrastructures (ports) and central infrastructures that do not take all interested parties into account. If the goal is to manage and exploit the Coastal Zone and support sustainable growth, global regulations, defined laws and bodies that have clear roles and responsibilities are needed. This subproject will be divided in two parts. Part 1 refers to legislation concerning the exploitation of submarine deposits and beach nourishment while Part 2 refers to the promotion of a European Observatory for the Defence of Mediterranean Coasts. Specifically:
Part 1
Part 1 of the subproject responds to the need to create a proposal for European regulations (laws and rules) concerning the use of marine deposits and beach nourishment, aimed at the use and defence of coastal zones at a global level. The objective is therefore to encourage contributions and ideas that are “regulatory” and look at the overall legislation, that is profiles of technical-scientific knowledge and also scenarios which go beyond legal matters. It is therefore necessary to create a constant flow of “rules” (which are structurally different to laws and regulations), aimed at organising actions and specific applications within the sector. Regional systems examined will be: Lazio, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna and Toscana for Italy, Eastern Macedonia and Crete for Greece and Catalonia for Spain. Mediterranean regions which are indirectly involved in the project will be taken into consideration according to the objective importance of the role they play within the overall European legislative picture.
The study will include the following tasks:
a) Focus on main experience at a European level (Beachmed, Eurosion) and International and European legislation. b) Specific analysis of the way laws are interpreted and the role of European rules and regulations and internal systems being studied. c) Study of the functional and organisational feasibility of a system of regulations for environmental defence and functionality of the coasts (the use of material and sediments for beach nourishment, dune system protection and recovery activities, protection and recovery initiatives of the phanerogam grasslands and the rules that discipline extraction of marine deposits, for example).
Part 2
Part 2 of the subproject responds to the need to create a European Observatory for the Defence of the Mediterranean Coast. The study for the proposal aimed at creating a European Observatory for the defence of the Mediterranean coasts includes the registration of infrastructure involved in the management and protection of the Coastal Zone, the description of methods and control systems for each region and the assessment of these systems. The proposal will have to recommend a modern system to be used to register and observe the phenomenon of coastal erosion, in order to manage and exploit coastal areas, via the creation of an observatory that will in turn require the selection of specific indicators and parameters and the creation of a linked database. Additionally, the proposal will describe a structured IT system for the management and collection of data, modelling and simulation of dynamic processes in the Coastal Zone, in order to male a more specific use of the erosive phenomena, helped by a geographic information system (GIS) that will distribute statistical and cartographical data from the Coastal Zone.