The EU-funded Mare Nostrum Project will hold a special training workshop focusing on applying the principles of PPGIS (Public Participatory GIS), to encourage coastal conservation and improve spatial planning in the Mediterranean Sea.
Representatives from Spain, Greece, Malta, Jordan and Israel will meet in Valletta to discuss how the principles of participatory community mapping can be applied by Mediterranean countries to improve coastal conservation and spatial planning
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The workshop, hosted by Mare Nostrum’s Maltese partner Integrated Resources Management (IRMCo), will take place in Valletta, Malta on November 10-14, 2014. It will bring together partners from Greece, Spain, Jordan, Malta and Israel.
During the workshop IRMCo will present and explain the process it has already tested in a pilot PPGIS process which focused on the Grand Harbor in Malta. Presentations will cover techniques to attract and interest the community to ensure participation in round table discussions, details of fieldwork to construct additional maps and the use of interactive tablets through which members of the local community has been empowered to add knowledge and perceptions to these maps.
“The workshop in Malta is an excellent opportunity for all partners to obtain a first-hand impression of how the PPGIS process, also known as local community mapping, should be applied, ” said Mare Nostrum project initiator and coordinator Prof. Rachelle Alterman.
“The case study of Malta’s Grand Harbor area highlights the concern of local residents regarding the protection and conservation of remaining open shoreline and can be a model for other communities along the Mediterranean which face similar problems.”
Mare Nostrum’s objective is to explore new ways of protecting and managing the Mediterranean coastline within the existing international Barcelona Convention and its Protocol on Integrated Coastline Zone Management (ICZM). The project uniquely focuses on understanding the “implementation gap” between the ideals of the Barcelona Convention and realities on the ground. The outcomes of the project will include recommendations for legal and institutional tools which may be adopted to improve local practices from the local level, taking a “bottom-up” approach.
Mare Nostrum is one of the 95 projects funded by 2007-2013 ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Program. The project is of three years’ duration and has a total budget of €4, 319, 592, 90 percent of which is financed by the program.
