Climate services for resilient and sustainable coastal systems

New GERICS article in openaccessgovernment.org

Coastal cities and settlements are a new focus area at Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS). Coasts, the meeting point of ocean and land, rich in natural resources, are critically important for economies, livelihoods and the well-being of (coastal) communities. According to forecasts, up to 70% of the world’s population will live on coasts in the next 50-100 years. Currently, 15 of the 20 megacities, i.e. cities with a population of more than 10 million inhabitants, are located on the coast. Coasts provide resources that drive economic activities such as tourism, the transport of goods and food production.

Source: openaccessgovernment.org

To develop climate services to support urban planning and management of coastal areas, a better understanding of the human system and its multilevel governance is needed.

Developing adaptation measures or pathways for societal transformation at a regional or local level – i.e. modelling the regional and local climate and the regional and local human system – need to be integrated into what is known at GERICS as a regional integrated modelling framework.

Given the global importance and priority of the UN SDGs and the Decade for Ocean Research, GERICS are developing several new activities to support the sustainable development of coastal systems. At GERICS, we are well-suited to tackle these tasks thanks to its interdisciplinary team and its expertise in transdisciplinary approaches.

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