Since the mid 20th century, it has become evident that humanity is overstepping the Earth's boundaries. The signs are unequivocal: extreme weather conditions, degrading ecosystems, pollution and numerous other effects. According to scientists, the severe effects of climate change will only increase in the foreseeable future.
Adapting coastal management
In the North Sea Region specifically, climate change will cause sea level rise (predicted from 0.5 to 1.0 meters in the year 2100), more severe storm surges, and heat stress on sandy and muddy coasts. Combined with increasing human activity, this will have a detrimental impact on coastal zones. If coastal management in the North Sea Region does not adapt to these changes, the coasts will face an increased vulnerability to flooding, erosion, biodiversity loss, and higher cost of grey infrastructure.
With these growing pressures, coastal authorities from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France are facing the challenge of integrating Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) with biodiversity goals, to deliver a sustainable future.
Nature-based Solutions
Fortunately, there is a way to deal with this challenge and develop a sustainable approach: Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Nature-based Solutions, for instance shoreline stabilization, create climate resilience and simultaneously provide benefits for human well-being and biodiversity. Furthermore, these solutions contribute to the ambition of creating a blue economy, an economy in which ocean resources are used for economic growth while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem. Nevertheless, NbS have not yet been implemented on a wide scale (also: mainstreamed). This is mostly due to a lack of understanding of the enabling factors for mainstreaming NbS.
MANABAS COAST
This exact issue is the motive of MANABAS COAST: MAinstreaming NAture BAsed Solutions through COASTal systems. By developing a proven and accessible framework, tools, guidelines based on pilot examples, we intend to set the stage for widescale application and implementation (mainstreaming) of NbS in the North Sea Region. In doing so, the project will ultimately enable integrated policies and decision making for the joint delivery of FCERM and biodiversity.
MANABAS COAST is an INTERREG North Sea Programme project, co-funded by the European Union. The project will run from 2022 to 2027 and is a cooperation of several partners, that were also involved in the recently completed INTERREG NSR Building with Nature project. In the Building with Nature project, we built a strong base for successful NbS pilots and identified enabling factors, such as technology knowledge and a multi-stakeholder approach. MANABAS COAST will elaborate on these outcomes and bring them to a national and EU scale by developing a generic framework for mainstreaming based on the identified enabling factors. Ultimately, the framework will contain learning activities for future and current professionals and decision-makers. These learning activities will promote capacity building, for which a Policy Reflection Group will be initiated. This Policy Reflection Group will reflect on the framework and add to it if needed.