Announcement of the HERMES VIRTUAL International Conference on

“Adapting to Coastal Zone Challenges and Risks:

Innovative Approaches and Solutions for Local and Regional Authorities in the Balkan-Mediterranean area”

organized by the Municipality of Paggaio and the HERMES project partnership,

with the participation of DMPCO

 18-19 June 2020

Coastal zones across the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean are facing ever-increasing natural and anthropological disturbances, including the occurrence of extreme events in the form of intense and more frequent storms, sea level rise, coastal erosion and over-exploitation of their resources among others. Such challenges raise serious concerns for coastal Local and Regional Authorities, as they are associated to socioeconomic impacts, economic losses and ecological damages, especially of valuable coastal habitats and environmental degradation.

HERMES aims to develop a unified and harmonized framework for coastal erosion mitigation and beach restoration covering the four partner countries (Albania, Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria) through the implementation of a coherent ensemble of studies, the sharing of already developed technical tools and the design of joint policy instruments. This is imperative since available evidence indicate that erosion is a problem for almost 30% of the coasts in Greece, 38% in Cyprus while in Bulgaria it reaches almost 71% ; in Albania shoreline erosion is particularly acute in the  central and northern part of its  420 km long coast. In parallel, in Eastern Mediterranean recent scenarios predict a sea level rise up to 1 m until the end of current century.

In this context, the HERMES International Conference will address issues related to:

• Coastal erosion: Current state, trends and perspectives
• Policies and Tools supporting the adaptation and resilience of Coastal Municipalities to Coastal Erosion and Sea Level Rise
• ICZM Protocol Implementation by Municipal and Regional Authorities
• Scientific Tools to Monitor Coastal Zone Processes
• Engineering Solutions Tackling Coastal Zone Challenges
• Touristic Development under Coastal Erosion and Climate Change Risks
• Financial Instruments related to Coastal Zone Management

Working language: English.

Those interested to participate are invited to fill out the Registration Form that can be found here  https://forms.gle/QDSCP8gTSSLSCgQv6

Please submit your abstract at hermes.bmp@gmail.com using the instructions given at the attached template,Below  until 10 June 2020