EUROSION
2002-2004

EUROSION was a large project directly commissioned by the Directorate-General Environment of the European Commission. The Project was led by RIKZ National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management in the Netherlands. The Isle of Wight Council's Centre for the Coastal Environment participated in the project as a study area.

The overall objective of EUROSION was to provide the European Commission with a package of recommendations for policy-making and information management practices to address coastal erosion risks in Europe, after a thorough assessment of knowledge gained from past experiences and of the current status and trends of European coastal change.

Project outputs include:

• A cartographic assessment of the exposure of the European coast to coastal erosion, based on spatial data and GIS analysis. This assessment classified the exposure to coastal erosion along SCOPAC's coastline as moderate (in the western part) to high (the eastern part and including the Isle of Wight);

• A review of existing practices and experiences of coastal erosion management at the level of local and regional authorities;

• A set of guidelines to better incorporate coastal erosion issues into environmental assessment procedures, spatial planning and coastal hazard prevention, and into regional and local information decision-support systems;

• A set of policy recommendations meant to improve coastal erosion management in the future at the European, national, regional and local level. These local level policy recommendations may be of interest to SCOPAC member authorities who are managing eroding coasts.

www.eurosion.org