Participants at the ECORES Foresight Workshop in Ravenna, ItalyDocuments:
ECORES will foster a new focus on the "blue" planning and design of harbours and waterfronts of European coastal cities. The ECORES foresight workshop in Bologna aims to establish a baseline of the status, threats, conflicting uses and main challenges in harbours and waterfronts of participating cities. The 35 participants will also establish guiding principles for the development of nature-based strategies for the revitalisation of biodiversity and enhancement of resilience in European harbours and waterfronts.
ECORES aims to bring together a critical mass of marine ecologists to start drafting a H2020 proposal with a strong ecosystem-based core. The proposal will be aimed at identifying and testing innovative nature-based solutions to mitigate the escalating impacts of marine urbanisation and for sustaining marine biodiversity and potential ecosystem services in harbours and waterfronts of European coastal cities. It will be submitted for the upcoming Horizon 2020 call "Societal challenge 5: Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials". Other expected outcomes include a review paper of the baseline status and challenges across European and global case-study cities. This paper will also include a critical assessment of priorities as well as guiding principles for the development of ecosystem-based strategies for the revitalisation of harbours and waterfronts.
The project, while initially centred on ecological themes, will be subsequently expanded to include a core of engineers and economists. ECORES aims to increase awareness of the benefits of revitalising marine ecosystems in harbours while addressing key EU environmental policies and international agreements on sustainable development.