April 2013

3rd PEGASO General Meeting: the project gets more ambitious

Mohammed V University-Agdal hosted the 3rd PEGASO General Meeting in Rabat (Morocco) on 19-22 March 2013. More than 60 representatives from the PEGASO institutional partners and end users along with Moroccan experts, researchers and stakeholders attended the meeting.


The partners discussed the progress that had been made on the project. They examined each work package and the future tasks to be performed, including the overall analysis of the Integrated Regional Assessment (IRA), the contribution made by the CASEs (pilot sites) to the various analyses, and the progress made in the operation of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) governance platform.


A number of special sessions also introduced participants to a novel scenario-building and decision support tool, Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) analysis. This tool brings together within a graphics-based framework the elements and relationships to take into account to aid decision making. The exercise was used to compare two future scenarios for Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts-‘Balanced urban development� and ‘Natural capital conservation�-by incorporating various drivers of coastal change and the results on the possible consequences of different situations.


The other workshop focused on the SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) map viewer functionalities and capabilities for stakeholders and end users, and their integration into the Web portal. This workshop also presented the role of the future Atlas within PEGASO and the ICZM platform and structure. Conceived as part of the SDI, the PEGASO Atlas will present a synthesis of current spatial information and knowledge on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal environments through a range of thematic maps. It will also display the results from sustainability indicators, giving an insight into the state of the coasts.


Participants briefly discussed the EU draft directive on maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management, recently released on 13 March. They also debated the final deliverables to be prepared in the coming months, with special focus on the Business Plan for the future of PEGASO. This document will be presented at the end of the project to possible donors who may be interested in investing in the follow-up to the activities recommended by the project. It is hoped that the Business Plan will make a substantial contribution to the future of sustainable development in coastal and marine areas in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and beyond.


The ideas exchanged during the meeting helped structure the next key steps for the last period of the PEGASO project, which still has 10 months to run. The ICZM questionnaire will be updated for the Mediterranean countries to serve as a benchmark for future reporting on the implementation of the ICZM Protocol.


The need for good overall communication and coordination between all partners and between regional platforms and local sites was highlighted.



More info: francoise.breton@uab.cat

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