ECCO_TS aims to develop a smart combination of observations/simulations based on new knowledge about coastal interactions for an integrated risk reduction for people, ecosystems and infrastructure, without increasing the carbon footprint of protection interventions. The result will be an adaptation aligned with mitigation and based on: 

a) continuous monitoring of driving forces, coastal responses, and residual adaptation capacity (quantitative innovation); 

b) set of co-designed adaptation pathways with thresholds defining no return points, and climate warnings (consensus innovation); 

c) incorporation of NbS (ecologic innovation) and predictive maintenance (economic innovation), both for natural systems and for port and coastal infrastructures. 

These elements will be aggregated in the Coastal Climate Change Observatory, providing coastal and port authorities with a science-grounded tool to support decision-making for a holistic coastal adaptation.

The proposed Observatory (Tasks 1 and 3) will blend past, present and future data at the pilot coast, incorporating geophysical, metocean and socioeconomic data, combining timeseries (time variation) with remote (spatial structure) data to characterise the biophysical evolution of the coast with its infrastructures. Suitably calibrated coupled model suites will be used (Task 2) for short term predictions and long term projections, assessing the occurrence of extreme events and potential negative impacts, and providing information on the pilot coast safe operative space. The time evolution of risk associated with key drivers will then be assessed (Task 3) at each Climatic Vulnerable Area, for different climate scenarios and horizons, leading to predicted and projected risk evolution, considering the more relevant hydro-morpho-structural interactions. From this new knowledge, tipping points specifying the irreversibility of the impacts will be defined, and intervention priorities will be proposed by categorizing the Climatic Vulnerable Areas in terms of present/future risk and resilience levels (Task 3). The combination of observations, numerical simulations and risk analysis will constitute the backbone pathways of the Coastal Climate Warning System (CCWS), ensuring its compatibility with early warning systems (EWS) that might exist in the pilot area.

ECCO_TS will foster coastal adaptation (Task 4) with adaptation pathways that include a transformation (Task 5) from traditional civil engineering to NbS interventions, supported by the Observatory and Climate Warnings. This will be demonstrated for the Barcelona/Baix Llobregat coast, from Gavà to the mouth of the Besòs River, which includes adaptation for urban beaches, semi-natural beaches and ports, conditioned by the presence of two rivers with their deltas. The demonstration includes a portfolio of potential adaptation measures, prioritized in terms of different criteria but with larger weight given to the environmental component. This will serve to export the project approach to other stretches of the Catalan, Spanish or UE coasts (Task 6), together with a sequenced dissemination plan that promotes predictive maintenance for coastal systems and infrastructures, with recommended monitoring schemes and interventions for maintenance that will be shared and enriched with the proposed capacity building activities (Task 6) in our country and in other EU and Northern African countries through the Advisory Board.