We invite scientific institutions, communities, as well as private and public stakeholders managing coastal resilience initiatives to nominate sites for an All-Atlantic Network of Coastal Resilience Beacon Sites. This initiative supports the implementation of the Coastal Resilience Action Area agreed by the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance (AAORIA).
Coastal regions around the world face a multitude of complex challenges including, sea-level changes, extreme weather events, ecosystem degradation, increasing anthropogenic pressures, etc. To effectively address these issues around the Atlantic, AAORIA agreed to prioritize the Action Area on Coastal Resilience:
“Increasing our understanding of the relationship between the ocean and climate and developing outcome-oriented science for mitigating and adapting to the consequences of climate change, particularly for the benefit of increasing resilience of coastal communities.”
In the past year, four AAORIA workshops confirmed the need for a network of collaborative hubs across the Atlantic – here named “Beacon Sites” – that both demonstrate innovation and practical action, and prioritize local community engagement and empowerment.
The Beacon Sites Network is a community of established and locally-managed coastal resilience sites that share a belief in community co-design, science and innovation as well as pan-Atlantic cooperation. Network partners share ideas, identify best practices, build capacities, access resources and much more to strengthen and scale-up coastal resilience actions at local level. The Network was initiated by the OKEANO CSA project, based on inputs from all AAORIA partners. It was started with a few initial sites and will expand to include more sites from around the Atlantic. The Network will be formally launched at the All-Atlantic Forum in Brussels in September 2025.
What is a Beacon Site?
Beacon Sites are local areas where scientists, communities and other stakeholders have agreed to test and implement coastal resilience. They should serve as a replicable model for other coastal communities facing similar challenges.
Beacons should be guided by the following principles:
- Focus on understanding and implementing complex coastal resilience solutions.
- Support co-design processes including a diverse set of community and broader societal stakeholders Engage different scientific, engineering, technology and/or architecture disciplines.
- Develop inclusive concepts of nature-based, infrastructure or hybrid solutions for the implementation of ecosystem co-design towards coastal resilience.
- Implement successful education and capacity-building measures for diverse stakeholders, with a special emphasis on marginalized societal groups, and youth.
- Educate and train early-career ocean professionals (ECOPs).
Beacon sites should serve as a replicable model for other coastal communities facing similar challenges. The network strives to represent diverse ecosystems, socio-economic contexts, and climate pressures.
Why join the Beacon Sites Network?
Joining the Beacon Sites Network offers a unique opportunity to share and shape best practices about coastal resilience based on excellent science, innovative methods and local action. Becoming a Beacon site is to join an evolving Atlantic community of actions! Specific benefits include:
- Best-Practice Exchange: The network connects established and locally-managed coastal resilience sites from around the Atlantic Ocean, to foster cross-border knowledge transfer, best-practice exchange, capacity building and cooperation.
a. Co-develop and refine methodologies that support assessing the effectiveness of community-driven resilience interventions.
b. Contribute to collective analyses and data sets that inform strategic decisions and secure funding for future coastal resilience projects. - Community-Driven Co-Design: The network is built on encouraging coastal resilience that is based on actions co-designed by local communities, scientists and stakeholders for the benefit of coastal communities.
a. Collaborate with researchers, practitioners, and local/regional actors (e.g. local authorities) from diverse coastal contexts across the Atlantic.
b. Share technical expertise, practical experiences, and strategies for empowering communities in resilience work. - Evidence-Based Action: The network shares experiences in understanding and implementing coastal resilience, striving to strengthen the contribution of science and innovation across diverse coastal settings.
a. Strengthen community leadership and engagement, ensuring local voices support and guide resilience planning.
b. Showcase successful practices at national/regional and international fora, opening doors to broader support. - Showcasing Impact: The network provides support to make the work of the beacon sites visible to a broad community of stakeholders, including in private and public sectors as well as multilateral fora.
a. Demonstrate tangible impacts and share best practices of resilience measures to policymakers and stakeholders.
b. Advance outcome-oriented science that addresses community needs and informs coastal resilience policies at multiple scales.
The network is substantially be inspired by national and regional activities, such as the Atlantic Lighthouse activities of the EU Mission Ocean and Waters.
How the Beacon Sites Network Works
The Beacon Sites Network is an Atlantic-wide network of local and regional actors. The Network seeks to strengthen and complement the existing on-site actions through content-related meetings, workshops and physical initiatives on the ground (from co-design to implementation). As a work in progress, these activities will continuously be shaped based on the needs of the network and the AAORIA members. While most meetings will be virtual, the Network will organize in person meetings to support community building.
The Coastal Resilience Hub will support all work and showcase activities.
About Us
The All-Atlantic Network of Coastal Resilience Beacon Sites is a Community-Demand-Driven initiative which builds on the activities and inputs of all Partners of the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance and is open to stakeholders, including communities’ experts, civil servants, practitioners, and early-career ocean professionals. It is being developed with the support of the OKEANO CSA, which is funded by the EU to support implementation activities under AAORIA including all-Atlantic cooperation on coastal resilience.
For more information or to join
Please submit site nominations via the following form: https://arcg.is/1OCKvb1
The All-Atlantic Coastal Resilience Hub: https://coastalresilience.allatlanticocean.org
Contact: Dr. Alexandra-Sophie Roy (roy@deutsche-meeresforschung.de)
We look forward to welcoming your contribution to a global community advancing science-informed approaches to coastal resilience!
The AAORIA All-Atlantic Network of Beacon Sites was developed and is implemented with the support of the OKEANO CSA to advance the first Area of Action identified by the 2023 AAORIA Joint Outcome Statement: Increasing our understanding of the relationship between the ocean and climate and developing outcome-oriented science for mitigating and adapting to the consequences of climate change, particularly for the benefit of increasing resilience of coastal communities.
