Event details

The 10th Littoral Conference

Littoral 2010 – an international conference for researchers and practitioners

"Adapting to global change at the coast: Leadership, Innovation, and Investment"

Organised by CoastNet, Eurocoast and EUCC and to be held at the Royal Geographical Society, London.

21st to 23rd September 2010

Across the world coasts are dynamic and ever-changing. In recent years an improved understanding of natural processes has generated new concepts in the management of coastal landforms, water bodies and ecosystems. But we must not overlook social and economic changes, which are just as important in providing the context for sustainable management. Indeed ‘global change’ is as much about the globalisation of the economy and society as it is about global environmental change.

The aim of the conference is to develop a holistic view of the priorities for integrated management across the social, political, economic and environmental divides that uniquely characterise the coast.

The themes of the conference reflect the three aspects of global change:

THEME 1: Global change and managing environmental risk;

THEME 2: Developing the marine and coastal economy;

THEME 3: Tackling inequality in coastal communities.

Each theme will be examined from the perspectives of leadership, innovation and investment. This framework provides the basis for an analysis of coastal regions and their management and a means of addressing critical questions concerning:

-Which are the barriers to improved management of coasts and nearshore marine systems?

-Where are the knowledge gaps and how can we improve management?

-What are the priorities?

-Do lessons learned identify good practices that can be widely applied, and what are the respective roles and responsibilities of the many different actors?

-What are the gains to be achieved through the integrated, holistic approach promoted by the concept of integrated coastal zone management?

These are important questions. Our coasts are important assets that have suffered from poor management in the past. Not only do we still struggle to make more integrated policy, but we also have to work within a legacy of past mistakes . Such is the pace of change in the world today that we need new perspectives, new tools and new policies now. The consequences of failure are increased risk, increased cultural and economic loss, and continued loss of biodiversity.