CONcepts and SCIENCE for coastal erosion management

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Figure: The CONSCIENCE logo.
This article briefly describes the CONSCIENCE project. This information is taken from the CONSCIENCE project website.

The Project

CONSCIENCE stands for CONcepts and SCIENCE for coastal erosion management and is willing to serve as an operational structure for sustainable coastal erosion management. It is a research project under the EU’s 6th Framework Programme for Research (FP6).

EU 6th Framework Programme
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.

The Objectives

The project will provide a series of guidelines and tools to implement a sustainable management strategy for erosion, allowing coastal managers to decide for the the most sustainable method of managing erosion at any given location, to safeguard coastal resilience. Such documents will be scientifically validated and the methodology operationally feasible. All relevant documents and results will be widely disseminated. The specific goals of the project are:

  • To define a decision-making framework based on the concepts formulated by the EUROSION project (EC, 2004) as:
    • Coastal resilience
    • Coastal sediment cells
    • Favourable sediment status
    • Strategic sediment
  • To develop these concepts into measurable standards which can be evaluated in practice for any field situation
  • To link these standards to ongoing European initiatives as GEO/GMES, the European Soil Startegy in preparation, The European Maritime Strategy and the Reccomendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).
  • To produce guidelines and tools to enable an effective implementation in European coastal management.

The Pilot Sites

In order to test the applicability of the management concepts and models, 6 test sites have been selected and represent the most common European coastal types. These are:
Figure: The CONSCIENCE Pilot Sites.
  • high-energy open coasts (Atlantic coasts) - Site 6
  • medium-energy coasts (North Sea coasts, English Channel coasts) - Sites 1,5
  • low-energy coasts (Mediterranean coasts, Baltic Sea coast, Black Sea coasts) - Sites 2,3,4


  1. Dutch Coast
  2. Hel peninsula, Gulf of Gdansk (Poland)
  3. The black sea coastal zone of the Danube Delta (Romania)
  4. Costa Brava Bays, Mediterranean coast (Spain)
  5. Pevensey Bay, English Channel Coats (United Kingdom)
  6. Inch Berry (Kerry), Atlantic Coast (Ireland)

The Partnership

The CONSCIENCE Partnership is made of 8 members:

  • The International Centre for Coastal Resources Research (CIIRC)
  • Deltares (formerly WL | Delft Hydraulics) - The Netherlands
  • EUCC Mediterranean Centre (Centro Mediterraneo EUCC)
  • National Institute for Marine Geology and Geo-ecology (GEOECOMAR) - Romania
  • HR Wallingford Ltd - UK
  • Institute of Hydroengineering, Polish Acad. of Sciences (IBW PAN) - Poland
  • National University of Ireland, Cork (NUIC) - Ireland
  • PAP/RAC | Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre - Croatia
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