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Coastal + Marine

Coastal + Marine

Oceans and coasts provide valuable natural resources and habitat to millions of people around the world. Over time, human uses increase pressure on these ecosystems. Existing policies and sectoral frameworks often struggle to balance human demand for ocean resources with ecological considerations. Frequently, ocean governance fails in ensuring resilience and in developing capacities to adapt to the effects of climate change.

Operating at the policy-science-society interface, Ecologic Institute's coastal and marine team addresses challenges to a healthy marine environment and the sustainable use of its resources. Issues like ocean governance, coastal adaptation and management, sustainable blue growth, or ocean plastic pollution are the cornerstone of our inter- and transdisciplinary research activities.

Not limited to, but with a focus on the Baltic and North Sea, Ecologic Institute's dedicated expertise lies in the analysis and implementation of marine and coastal policies and legislation. Co-creation and understanding stakeholders' needs – particularly in sociocultural, political, and economic contexts – are also inherent aspects of the practical transformation research. The interdisciplinary team provides research, analytical insights, and recommendations to help guide policy- and decision-makers at national, regional, European, and international levels towards more inclusive and integrated ocean and coastal management.

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Related Topics

International Development

Coastal + Marine

Nature-based Solutions and Green Infrastructure

Adaptation

Evaluation

Environmental Law – Ecologic Legal

Arctic

Coastal + Marine

Climate

Education

Arne Riedel, LLM
Coordinator Ecologic Legal
Coordinator Arctic
Senior Fellow

Coastal + Marine

Biodiversity

Nature-based Solutions and Green Infrastructure

Arctic

Lina Röschel
Researcher

Coastal + Marine

Cultural Ecology

Adaptation

Dr. Nico Stelljes
Co-coordinator Coastal and Marine Studies
Fellow

Agriculture

Arctic

Biodiversity

Coastal + Marine

Communication

Forest

Nature-based Solutions and Green Infrastructure

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Soil

Water

Prof. Test User
Developer
Coordinator
Head of irgendwas
Selected Projects for Coastal + Marine

© UNITED

The UNITED project provides evidence by means of pilot demonstrators that the development of multi-use platforms or co-location of different activities in a marine and ocean space is a viable approach (economically, socially and environmentally) for European maritime in... Read more

Multi-use Offshore Platforms Demonstrators for Boosting Cost-effective and Eco-friendly Production in Sustainable Marine Activities (UNITED)

Duration
Jan 2020 - Jun 2023
Funding
Why the EU4Ocean Coalition? The ocean is a source of life for human beings. It gives us food, oxygen and energy. It is home to many species and acts as climate regulator. Understanding how we influence the ocean and how the ocean influences us is at the core of ocean... Read more

The EU4Ocean Coalition for Ocean Literacy

Duration
Dec 2019 - Dec 2021
Funding
Ostseeküste | © Ecologic Institut
The aim of the project is to provide technical support and assistance for the tasks of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in implementing the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the necessary cooperation on a regional, national and EU level. As a subsidi... Read more
| Fotolia © Victoria
The research project INNOVA will consolidate key factors from adaptive management strategies from leading earlier and on-going European initiatives in Spain (Valencia), Germany (Bay of Kiel) and the Netherlands (Nijmegen) and France’ overseas territories in Guadel... Read more
|©EvgenyKuklev|iStockphoto.com
Ecologic Institute is member of the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM) which works with the European Environment Agency (EEA) under a Framework Partnership Agreement for the period from 2019 to 2021. The ETC/ICM aims to provide support... Read more
| ©tai111|Fotolia.com
The aim of the project participants is to provide the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) with scientific support in communicating the results of the IPCC Special Reports on "Climate Change and Land" (SRCCL) and "The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate" (SROC... Read more
Knowledge, Assessment, and Management for AQUAtic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aCROSS EU policies (AQUACROSS) aims to support EU efforts to protect aquatic biodiversity and ensure the provision of aquatic ecosystem services. Funded by Europe's Horizon 2020 resear... Read more

Knowledge, Assessment, and Management for Aquatic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Across EU Policies (AQUACROSS)

Duration
Jun 2015 - Nov 2018
Funding
| Fischerei an der Ostseeküste © Ecologic Institut
The aim of the project was to develop a study "Ocean as a Global Commons: International Governance and the Role of Germany" at the request of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) as part of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (Wissensc... Read more
Climate change is leading to increased vulnerability of coastal areas as coastal storms, sea level rise and flooding cause significant impacts across Europe. Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts – toolKIT (RISC-KIT) is a four-year European research project aimed ... Read more

Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts – toolKIT (RISC-KIT)

Duration
Nov 2013 - Apr 2017
Funding
Both the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the EU Water Framework Directive require substantial further reductions of nutrient loads (N and P) to the Baltic Sea during the coming years. Achievements of these goals will only be possible by the implementation of fundamental chan... Read more
Workshop zu Ökosystemleistungen von Küsten in St. Lucia.
The BMZ/KFW funded project 'Coastal Protection for Climate Change Adaptation in the Small Island States in the Caribbean' aims to improve coastal ecosystem services to reduce the impacts of climate change in Jamaica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and t... Read more
The Ecologic Institute coordinated the five-year project RADOST (Regional Adaptation Strategies for the German Baltic Sea Coast). The Baltic coastline of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein is one of seven model regions in Germany that were supported by... Read more
All projects on Coastal + Marine
Selected Publications for Coastal + Marine
Practically the entire European marine area is facing multiple pressures – such as hazardous substances, fish stock exploitation, climate change, underwater noise, non-indigenous species, seafloor damage, marine litter and nutrient enrichment. This is the conclusi... Read more

Korpinen, S., Klančnik, K., Peterlin, M., Nurmi, M., Laamanen, L., Zupančič, G., Murray, C., Harvey, T., Andersen, J.H., Zenetos, A., Stein, U., Tunesi, L., Abhold, K., Piet, G., Kallenbach, E., Agnesi, S., Bolman, B., Vaughan, D., Reker, J. & Royo Gelabert, E., 2019, Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe’s seas. ETC/ICM Technical Report 4/2019: European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters, 164 pp.

Scientific Review Paper
The study "Ocean as a Global Commons: International Governance and the Role of Germany" was developed by Ecologic Institute at the request of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) as part of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (Wissensc... Read more

Abhold, K., Hoffmann, H., McGlade, K., Krüger, I., Stelljes, N. (2019): Oceans as Global Commons. International Governance and the Role of Germany. Report to the Science Platform Sustainability 2030. Berlin: Ecologic Institute.

The Baltic Sea Action Plan and the EU Water Framework Directive both require substantial additional reductions of nutrient loads (N and P) to the marine environment. Focusing on nitrogen, we present a widely applicable concept for spatially differentiated regulation, ex... Read more

Jens Christian Refsgaard, Anne L. Hansen, Anker L. Højberg, Jørgen E. Olesen, Fatemeh Hashemi, Przemyslaw Wachniew, Anders Wörman, Alena Bartosova, Nico Stelljes, Boris Chubarenko (2019): Spatially differentiated regulation: Can it save the Baltic Sea from excessive N-loads?. Ambio, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01195-w

In this article, the authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Linda Mederake, assess innovative climate governance in small-to-medium-sized structurally disadvantaged cities (SDCs). Considering their deeply ingrained severe economic and social problems, it would be ... Read more

Wurzel, Rüdiger; Moulton, Jeremy; Osthorst, Winfried; Mederake, Linda; Deutz, Pauline; Jonas, Andrew (2019): Climate pioneership and leadership in structurally disadvantaged maritime port cities. Environmental Politics 28(1): 146-166.

Diffuse Water Pollution from Agriculture (DWPA) and its governance has received increased attention as a policy concern across the globe. Mitigation of DWPA is a complex problem that requires a mix of policy instruments and a multi-agency, broad societal response. In th... Read more

Morten Graversgaard, Hedelin B., Smith L., Gertz F., Højberg A.L., Langford J., Martinez G., Mostert E., Ptak E., Peterson H., Stelljes N., van den Brink C., and Refsgaard J.C., Opportunities and Barriers for Water Co-Governance—A Critical Analysis of Seven Cases of Diffuse Water Pollution from Agriculture in Europe, Australia and North America. Sustainability 2018.10, 1634.

The idealistic endeavor of a universal education, as was conveyed for centuries by research institutions, is passé. It needed to be replaced by two scientific disciplines: The social sciences and humanities and the natural sciences and engineering sciences. However it s... Read more

Martinez, G., Armaroli, C., Costas, S., Harley, D. M., Paolisso, M., (2018), Experiences and results from interdisciplinary collaboration: Utilizing qualitative information to formulate disaster risk reduction measures for coastal regions, Coastal Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2017.09.010

It is widely recognized that national or regional efforts to restrict the damage of climate change are insufficient and hence that environmental and climate protection needs a global concept. Paradoxically, the way environmental and climate change is perceived and damag... Read more

Grit Martinez and Michael J. Paolisso 2015: "Cultural Dynamics of Adaptation to Climate Change: An Example from the East Coast of the US", in: Bernd Sommer (ed.): Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America. [Climate and Culture 3]. Leiden: Brill, 304-332.

In the article "Why do we decide to live with risk at the coast?" recently published in "Ocean and Coastal Management", Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute and Susana Costas and Prof. Oscar Ferreira of the University of Algarve explore risk perception in a community... Read more

Costas S., Ferreira ,O., Martinez, G., Why do we decide to live with risk at the coast? In: Ocean and Coastal Management, available online 30 May 2015, In Press.

This study presents information about the storms in 1872 and 1904 that occurred along the coast of Scania that is analysed with respect to the evolution of risk awareness, vulnerability, and societies' resilience over time. The article, to which Dr. Grit Martinez fr... Read more

Fredriksson; C., Feldmann Eellend, B., Larson; M., Martinez, G., The role of historical storm events in risk analysis. A study of the coastal flood events in 1872 and 1904 along the South and East Coast of Scania, Sweden, Vatten, Journal of Water Management and Research, pp 73:93 – 108, Lund 2017

This paper presents a new approach to guiding coastal stakeholders about making informed decisions about Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) measures and alternatives. As part of the RISC-KIT project and tool box, the paper presents a holistic DRR measure approach including t... Read more

Stelljes, N.; Martinez G.; McGlade, K. (2017). Introduction to the RISC-KIT Web Based Management Guide for DRR in European Coastal Zones. RISC-KIT Project.

Martinez, Grit and Mike K. Orbach 2014: "Küstenschutz - Europa und USA im Vergleich", in: Heike Leitschuh et al. (eds.): Jahrbuch Ökologie 2015. Re-Naturierung. Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag, 214-222.
 ... Read more

Martinez, Grit and Mike K. Orbach 2014: "Küstenschutz - Europa und USA im Vergleich", in: Heike Leitschuh et al. (eds.): Jahrbuch Ökologie 2015. Re-Naturierung. Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag, 214-222.

All publications on Coastal + Marine
Selected Events for Coastal + Marine
On 25 October 2019 the Ecologic Institute supported the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in a webinar on the IPCC Special Report on "The ocean and the cryosphere in a changing climate" (SROCC). The Ecologic Institute, together with the project Partner Climate Analytics,... Read more
|© berrini films
On 14 October 2016, the documentary film "Soils2Sea: Reducing nutrient loadings into the Baltic Sea" premiered in Poland. Developed and produced by Dr. Grit Martinez (Ecologic Institute) and Anne Berrini (berrini films) with support from Dr. Przemyslaw Wachnie... Read more
| © ilm
Marine science is often still understood narrowly as a specialization of the natural sciences, to the exclusion of social sciences and humanities. Yet contributions from social sciences and humanities in marine research are necessary to explain what happens in the ocean... Read more

Workshop:Social Sciences and Humanities in Marine and Coastal Research

Date
3 - 4 December 2018
Organizer
BONUS SOILS2SEA
The conference will introduce results of four BONUS projects ending in 2018: BONUS BALTICAPP, BONUS GO4BALTIC, BONUS MIRACLE and BONUS SOILS2SEA. Novel approaches for managing nutrients, as well as governance approaches for the Baltic Sea region will be presented for di... Read more
Fotolia© DeVIce
On 22 April 2013, the Embassy of the United States and Ecologic Institute hosted a lunch seminar presenting the results of a transatlantic research project on cultural perceptions of climate change and adaptation in coastal regions. This project, undertaken by Duke Univ... Read more
All events on Coastal + Marine