ClimVar & ICZM Regional Conference in Kiel

The Regional Conference on the evaluation of socio-economic impacts of climate variability and change (CV&C) in coastal zones was held at the Geographic Institute of the University of Kiel, Germany, from September 7 to 8. The meeting was attended by twenty participants, including representatives from Croatia, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco and Tunisia, experts from Plan Bleu, the Med Sea Foundation, the Basque Center for Climate Change and the University of Split, as well as representatives of the University of Kiel and PAP/RAC as conference organizers. The participants were welcomed by the Director of the Excellence Cluster Future Ocean. This network regroups the Faculties of the University of Kiel, the Kiel Institute of World Economy, the GEOMAR Institute and the Mathesius Institute of Fine Arts into a strongly integrative and multidisciplinary structure.

After a brief presentation and review of the activities and products of the ClimVar project per components by Plan Bleu and PAP/RAC experts, the DIVA team experts gave an overview of the concepts and history of the DIVA model and explained its structure. After the introduction to the training procedure the participants were divided into working groups to proceed with the computer-based practice. This was an excellent opportunity for them to, with the assistance of students from the University of Kiel, run the model and discuss its components.

On the second day, a half-day workshop was dedicated to the presentation of the key outputs of the ClimVar project on the evaluation of socio-economic impacts of CV&C on coastal zones. The meeting was interactive and the participants had the opportunity to discuss and comment the results. These exchanges helped also to make a step forward in the finalisation of various products, e.g. DIVA Tunisia, evaluation of CV&C impacts on key economic sectors in Tunisia and the Guidelines for socio-economic evaluation of CV&C in coastal zones. A field trip was organised in the afternoon, which gave the chance to the participants to become familiar with the adaptation measures and coastal engineering and planning on the Baltic Sea in the Kiel region.