iCOAST
Innovation ecosystems for climate resilience in high-risk coastal communities
The iCOAST project was conceived as an integrated response to the territorial, socio-economic, and ecological impacts resulting from the intensification of coastal erosion processes. These processes stem from the interplay between anthropogenic pressures and climate variability, within the broader context of global change. The project’s territorial living lab is located along the Cova-Gala – Leirosa coastal stretch (Coimbra district), a low-lying area highly exposed to energetic marine wave action and to changes induced by human interventions in the region’s sedimentary and fluvial dynamics.
Grounded in consolidated scientific evidence, iCOAST proposes the implementation of a Coastal Resilience Living Lab (CR-LL) as a territorial innovation ecosystem. This living lab will foster collaboration among citizens, researchers, businesses, and public entities in a co-creative process aimed at the design, prototyping, and scaling of community-based solutions focused on the integrated management of coastal risks and their multidimensional socioecological impacts.
The CR-LL will be structured around two key axes: (i) the monitoring, modelling, and projection of risks associated with coastal erosion and flooding; and (ii) the identification of local communities’ priority needs, as well as behavioural and structural factors that influence the adoption of adaptation strategies.
By adopting a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies, iCOAST aims to generate actionable, applied knowledge to support local adaptation strategies and inform evidence-based public policymaking. Additionally, the project foresees the development of an incubation programme for innovative solutions, as well as the design of strategies to enable their scaling and adaptation to other coastal contexts. Finally, the project will produce integrated policy recommendations grounded in empirical evidence and in the participatory co-creation processes carried out throughout the project.
Through the implementation of the Coastal Resilience Living Lab (CR-LL), iCOAST aims to foster the development of skills and capacities that enable citizens to: (1) actively engage in understanding and responding to coastal risks; (2) strengthen practices of environmental citizenship; (3) enhance public participation in coastal risk management processes; (4) contribute to the development of more resilient communities in the face of erosive processes and extreme events; and (5) promote the alignment of communities with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as well as with other international policies, directives, and strategies, such as the European Union’s Integrated Maritime Policy, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive.
Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES)
Universidade de Coimbra (UC)
Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC)
Portugal 2030