Climate change and coastal landscape evolution in the Mediterranean context

The BIP hosted by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, focuses on field activities and new field methods and techniques. The BIP will provide undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students with different academic background opportunities to learn about the coastal environmental sustainability issues in a climate change era in a coastal environment affected by humans. In this way, students from the CIVIS alliance will be fully trained, gaining academic and cultural experience of different universities and countries. They will learn new techniques and acquire more qualifications for the job market.

The virtual part of this BIP will combine online pre-recorded lectures and activities with synchronous instructor-led discussions. It will give students the theoretical background on the subjects of this course, but also introduce them virtually to the study area of the physical mobility. The aim is for the students to be acquainted with the visiting sites prior to the physical mobility, so that, while in the field, more focus can be given on the application and training in methods and techniques and to establish more fruitful discussions between students and tutors and interaction between tutors from different countries and disciplines.

The 5-day field part will be held on the island of Naxos and Koufonisi in the Aegean Archipelago, Greece. The entire area is already affected by climate change, which is obvious from changes in vegetation, freshwater availability, runoff erosion, flash flood events, desertification, landslides, and coastal erosion. The coastal zone is affected by fluvial, tectonic and aeolian coastal processes and human interventions and thus the interdisciplinary approach by this partnership is important. The coastal landscape provides spectacular examples of sea level fluctuations, indicators of former sea level, the interaction between landscape and humans from antiquity until today, and well-developed coastal landforms. The active geomorphology, the processes including tectonics are amazingly self-explanatory and is a unique example for our students to better understand landscape evolution and how it is affected by climate change. The area offers an excellent opportunity for discussions about adaptation and mitigation strategies and nature-based solutions (NBS).

Main topics addressed

• Climate change impact on the landscape
• Climate change impact on the environment
• Human impact on the landscape and the ecology
• Palaeoenvironmental changes and palaeogeographic evolution / reconstruction
• Current societal challenges, including the future of lagoons
• Climate change indicators
• Coastal processes
• Morphotectonics
• Nature based solutions to cope with coastal erosion
• Nature based solutions to re-built sand dunes
• The future of coastal lagoons

Learning outcomes

The course will provide to students:

• Understanding origin and patterns of climate change from North to South
• Understanding climate change and landscape evolution in the Mediterranean context
• Understanding how climate change is affecting the landscape
• Training on coastal landscape topics
• New competences on coastal geomorphological methods and techniques
• Theoretical thinking and ability to turn theory into practice
• Problem-solving ability through application of knowledge
• Record, analysis and composition of data and information by using the necessary technologies
• Teamwork
• Work in interdisciplinary environment
• Respect of the natural environment