UK Coastal Zone

In England you will never find yourself more than 70 miles from the coast, and as such the coast has always played an important role as a place to live, work and spend leisure time. Yet, the typical picture of seaside towns is currently one of sustained decline, the seaside tourist industry is shrinking and for coastal towns with no other unction such as ports, the future can look bleak.

However, the tide is beginning to turn, investment is being made and innovative, forward-thinking regeneration professionals in local authorities are focusing on developing new opportunities, attracting funding and discovering new ways to regenerate coastal towns. Existing partnerships are being strengthened and new ones created with national government, regional agencies and the private and voluntary sectors getting involved, all of which are all helping to transform the seaside economy.

Using practical case studies this conference will examine coastal regeneration in the UK and will help you discover what you need to do to transform your area.

Discover through case studies from Newquay, Scarborough and Morecambe what is currently being achieved to regenerate coastal towns.

Hear from leading experts and decision-makers in the field, including Liz McSheehy, Area Director, Surrey and Sussex at the South East England Regional Development Agency (SEEDA), who will show you how to engage with business and make partnerships work.

Learn and understand how to unlock the sustainable tourism potential in your coastal area.

Gain the valuable opportunity to discuss ideas, question our expert speakers and network with fellow delegates.

Who should attend.

This conference has been specifically designed and researched for all those working in and responsible for coastal regeneration.

A meeting of the IACMST Marine Environmental Data (MED) Forum.

This workshop will discuss issues with the availability, use and curation of collections of photographs and videos in the field of coastal morphology, marine ecology, and underwater geology and biology. The format of the workshop will be a number of keynote talks by leading researchers, which will provide informative, up-to-date overviews concerning:

- types and scientific use of collections

- technology for extracting information from photo/video archives

- new initiatives to increase accessibility to collections

- curation techniques and the impact of digital image capture

The meeting will interest a wide range of marine and coastal researchers, data and information specialists, and archive management specialists to allow discussion and an exchange of views on current trends in the development, use and future of this type of collection. A poster session is planned together with demonstrations of photo/video collection databasing. Poster presentations from delegates are encouraged.

System of Industry Metocean data for the Offshore and Research Communities (SIMORC).

This will deliver an operational service on the Internet, featuring a searchable metadata index and a database of the metocean data sets collected by the oil & gas industry at various sites on the globe in the past and continuing at present.

The metadata index will be public domain and provide sufficient information to allow the user to assess the relevance of the data sets to their particular interest.

The database will contain metocean data sets that have undergone quality control and conversion to unified formats, resulting in consistent and high quality, harmonized data sets. Access to the data will be regulated by a dedicated SIMORC Data Protocol, involving rules for access and use of data sets by scientific users, by oil & gas companies between each other, and by third parties, private and public.

Sponsored by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and hosted by the IACMST, the Partnership provides a coordinating framework for managing marine data and information across the UK. Its mission is harmonised stewardship of and access to marine data and information, to facilitate improved management of the seas around the UK.

The overall objectives are:

1. To provide a framework for the UK marine data community with respect to data capture (includes ingestion), inter-operability, curation and dissemination;

2.To develop, adopt and promote standards, specifications and procedures in support of 1;

3. To contribute to the marine component of and support for the geospatial strategy for the UK.

Walkers can now follow the 84-mile route of Hadrian's Wall for the first time in 1,600 years.

The coast-to-coast trail goes from Bowness-on-Solway, Cumbria to Wallsend, Tyneside.

Parts of the wall have been open to public access since the Romans left. The development of 30 miles of new rights of way now means that the wall can be walked in its entirety.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have criticised the government for failing to protect a unique Scottish coral site from being damaged by deep-water fishing.

The organisation said that it was still waiting for Margaret Beckett (DEFRA secretary of state) to follow up on her pledge to designate the Darwin Mounds (situated off the Scottish coastline), a special area of conservation.

Helen McLachlan of WWF said that "Ministers north and south of the border need to take the marine environment more seriously".