CONSCIENCE: Concept and Science for Coastal Erosion Management

The strategic objective of the CONSCIENCE project is to develop and test concepts, guidelines and tools for the sustainable management of erosion along the European coastline, based on best available scientific knowledge and on existing practical experience.

Aims

1. To define a decision-making framework based on the concepts formulated by the EUROSION project, i.c. coastal resilience, coastal sediment cells, favourable sediment status and strategic sediment reservoirs.
   
2. To develop these concepts into measurable standards, which can be evaluated in practice for any field situation.
   
3. To link these standards to ongoing European initiatives as GEO/GMES, the European Soil Strategy in preparation, The European Maritime Strategy and the Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management.
   
4. To produce guidelines and tools to enable an effective implementation in European coastal management.
   

The practical applicability and effectiveness of the guidelines and tools will be evaluated in selected test sites. It is envisaged that the combination of the decision-making framework and the provision of guidelines and tools will prove highly valuable to coastal managers when deciding on the most sustainable method of managing erosion at any given location. Therefore the project results will be broadly disseminated to stakeholders at local, regional and European levels.