[Coral-List] Call for abstracts: 'Developing Solutions: New Tools to Assist in Coastal Adaptation'

[O'Farrell, Shay]

Hi Jim... let's try that again!
Cheers
Shay

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Call for abstracts: “Developing Solutions: New Tools to Assist in Coastal Adaptation”

This coming September, Brisbane will host Australia's bi-annual Coast to Coast Conference with the theme "Living On The Edge": http://www.coast2coastconference.com/

We are very pleased to announce a call for abstracts for a symposium entitled “Developing Solutions: New Tools to Assist in Coastal Adaptation”.  The symposium aims to bring together those interested in coastal zone decision-making in the context of climate change, from resource users to policy makers, and to showcase practical approaches to problem solving, especially when conflicting interests trade off against each other.

Coastal adaptation to climate change is a highly interdisciplinary challenge and we use the word ‘tools’ in its most inclusive sense, encompassing legal, biophysical, social and economic facets.  The symposium organisers would welcome oral presentations that showcase tools such as policy instruments, social network analysis, visualisation, scenario development, optimisation approaches, etc.  The symposium will be an ideal platform from which to expose a wide range of stakeholders to developments in decision-support tools, and oral presentations should be aimed at a general audience.

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words long and should be submitted to Dr. Shay O’Farrell at the Global Change Institute, University of Queensland (s.ofarrell at uq.edu.au).  Submissions close on April 30th 2012.  Please feel free to send queries or comments to the same address. For more information on abstract requirements, please refer to the conference website.

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Symposium Summary: “Developing Solutions: New Tools to Assist in Coastal Adaptation”

Climate change adaptation in coastal and flood-prone areas is a key challenge for Australia. A legacy of development in low-lying areas combined with predictions of future sea-level rise make the Australian coastline particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In addition to impacts on people and built environments, sea-level rise will affect the coastal and natural environment, such as the distribution of coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses. Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to develop tools to overcome these challenges.  This symposium will showcase approaches tocoastal zone decision making in the context of sea-level rise, including:

policy instruments and planning tools, including State and regional plans and local government planning schemes;
 decision support tools, such as systematic conservation planning software; and
socioeconomic and biophysical modelling, monitoring and visualisation tools..

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Coast to Coast 2012:  http://www.coast2coastconference.com/

Australia’s national coastal conference is renowned for providing an excellent forum for all with an interest in coastal, estuarine and marine matters to meet and to share knowledge and experiences in the areas of management, science, policy, governance, advocacy and other related topics. In fact it has become the most important conference for bridging the divides between the various sectors and making a difference. It has been successfully held every two years since 1994 at venues in different States around Australia..