Protection and management of coastal deserve a relevant role in the planning of future territorial development of CADSES area, as well as in many other areas of Europe. Nowadays, managing coastal areas means taking into account a number of different needs: preserving environment and landscape, guaranteeing access from land and sea for tourism, commerce, etc. The complex ensemble of natural marine, terrestrial, atmospheric processes that determine the “state” of coastal areas is the result of a statistical balance which is subject to both natural and anthropogenic changes. It is of vital importance, for the preservation and management of coastal areas, to be able to detect signs of trend in the coast state as well as to identify the nature and origin of the detected trends.
The project essentially originates from merging of two different streams of activity on the problem of protecting the coastal areas: on one hand work devoted to the protection of specific areas and on the other, initiatives aimed at developing general standards for the assessment of the “state of the coast”, its evolution, the causes of such evolution. The results expected are essentially: guidelines for coast protection and management based on an integrated land-sea culture of coastal areas, on a general view of coastal areas in southern Europe, on specific experiences in the Italian and Greek basins.