The most recent report of the IPCC-AR6 indicates that coastal areas are at risk under the climate emergency that the planet faces, and now more than ever, adaptation is an urgent need. Although remarkable efforts have been made to quantify future changes in the primary climate-related drivers of coastal flooding and erosion risk (waves, sea level rise, and storm surges), these are not yet fully understood. Due to the displacement poleward of Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones in a changing climate, the ocean waves and total sea levels that they induce could hit regions they did not affect before. For the purposes of this proposal, these new regions that will be exposed to new weather conditions are called Transitional Climate Regions (TCR) and Neo-Climate Regions (NCR). Even though these transitional climate regions have been highlighted as critical for ecosystem conservation, they are far from being identified and not even close to becoming part of the coastal risk agenda. This project aims to detect TCR and NCR in the projected scenario SSP5-8.5, by proposing a probabilistic framework of waves and total sea level, under prevailing and extreme conditions (extratropical and tropical cyclones) in coastal areas. These regions are prioritized under socioeconomic and ecological criteria for establishing recommendations. The project, instead of proposing new datasets, proposes a cutting-edge spatiotemporal exploration of coastal hazards by using Machine Learning approaches and a new mindset for climate risk. Once climate and exposure regions are identified, the developing guidelines for coastal risk assessment in these areas will be established.

The SWIM (Surface Water Information Management) project assembles a geographically diverse and interdisciplinary consortium, comprising of SMEs, a research organisation, and an end-user NGO from 3 European countries (Cyprus, Germany, and Spain) and two international Copernicus cooperation partners (USA and Colombia). Together, we aim to develop and test at TRL4, a Copernicus-based surface water information management application that provides continuous, reliable, and accurate monitoring and reporting of various ecological parameters (water quality, algal blooms), predict future conditions (water quantity and water balance), assess risks related to surface waters (floods and droughts), and translate this information into direct, easy-to-understand, actionable recommendations via an artificial intelligence decision support system and an interactive, user-friendly layout (alerts, data visualization layers, and reports) to be used by water management authorities and relevant stakeholders for surface water management and more reliable decision-making. SWIM will contribute to UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6- ‘Ensure access to water and sanitation for all’ and other important European initiatives and directives like the Water Framework Directive and Surface Waters Ordinance. SWIM will use surface water information from Copernicus Earth Observations (EO) satellite data that is calibrated and enhanced using in-situ measurements from our patented satellite based IoT (Internet of Things) hardware platform called WAMO (Water Monitoring) developed by the consortium. The platform will combine three main aspects of water management for specific water basins: a water quality module including identification, tracking, predictive analysis and reporting of water quality indicators; a water balance module for assessing the hydrological balance of water bodies and lastly a natural disaster assessment module for identifying and mapping of areas at risk of floods and droughts.

DN ArCHe trains 10 PhD fellows for increasing the scientific and public value of Europe’s archaeological coastal heritage, focusing on the legacy of Stone Age hunter-fisher-gatherers. Including some of the earliest remains of human activity, this legacy is crucial for understanding human engagement with the coast. Yet it is fragile and highly heterogeneous, with diverse material and cultural expressions. It is embedded in a variety of geographic settings across Europe differing in environmental development, which face massive environmental and human threats. It is also approached in various ways in cultural heritage management with little systematic integration of knowledge on the topic. DN ArCHe deals with the challenges of this fractured field with an innovative past-present-future approach which focuses on connecting the legacy from the past, its present status as archaeological heritage and prospects for its future protection and integration. With six beneficiaries and nine associated partners, ArCHe unites academic research centres and non-academic organizations (cultural heritage sector, specialist organisations, museums, media). As a joint platform for research and training, it leverages on customized PhD projects, cross-fertilization of knowledge among researchers and partners, scientific courses, workshops, conferences, applied secondments and transferable skills training. Training in archaeology, anthropology, critical heritage studies, heritage management, bioarchaeology, geology, oceanography, coastal engineering/preservation and communication relevant to coastal heritage and environment, equips ArCHe PhDs with advanced interdisciplinary and cross-regional knowledge and skills applicable to various academic and non-academic fields across Europe. Through best practices, they will contribute to the visibility, preservation and sustainable integration of the vulnerable cultural heritage in coastal areas facing global environmental and development challenges.

Modelling, Mapping, and Monitoring Nature Infrastructure (3M NI) is an evolving land use and management strategy using digital technologies & biodiversity knowledge to achieve sustainable use of resources and promote Nature-Based Solutions (NbS). 3M NI methods, harnessing data from in-situ observations, satellites, Internet of Things (IoT), and technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence, can potentially increase the quantity and quality of data products while planning biodiversity and climate actions through NBS. One of the main challenges for NBS in Southeastern Europe is the low adoption rate of 3M NI technologies and practices, especially concerning "big data in natural resources" partly due to the lack of efficient communication skills as well as scientific and technological (S&T) skills for executing multi/cross/interdisciplinary analytics on multi-scale/source environmental data, addressing regional and site level issues, to extract more accurate and impactful actionable information by combining these data with specific user´s needs. SONATA capacity-building strategy builds on the complementary expertise of VITO (Belgium), FIHAC (Spain), NINA (Norway) and UNIOVI (Spain), that will transfer knowledge and skills to BIOS (Serbia) to enhance 1) researchers' S&T capacity for performing multi-scale/source data analyses, 2) researchers and administrative staff’s capability to communicate practical environmental data-related knowledge for NBS planning to stakeholders across the sustainable landscape value chain and to non-scientific local communities and 3) lower the development gap between European regions and create lasting partnerships. IT and Biosystems BIOS centers will be enhanced through SONATA into a NBS Team (NbS-T) concentrating on cross/multi/interdisciplinary innovation-driven R&D within a co-creation environment. Post SONATA BIOS' NBS-T will be nationally competent in the 3M NI and NBS sector and a qualified partner at the European level.