HOW COASTAL OBSERVATORY WAS BORN

On March 2019 , a group of researchers from the Catholic University of Chile , together with foundations and non-profit NGOs, organized to create the Coastal Observatory, a technical-scientific platform that seeks to co-create planning and local governance of the coastal zone in Chile to promote a sustainable transformation.

The latter, due to the complex scenario that the Chilean coast presents regarding problems of inequity, environmental justice, socio-natural disasters, degradation of its natural and cultural heritage, as well as the need to review its regulatory framework.

The Coastal Observatory born and coordinated from the UC Institute of Geography with the support of the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies, the Department. of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, the Coastal Marine Research Station ( ECIM ), the National Research Center for Integrated Management of Natural Disasters ( CIGIDEN ) and the Center for Sustainable Urban Development ( CEDEUS ), who currently form its Steering Committee.

VISION

Tend to co-create planning and local governance of the coastal zone in Chile, under a focus on sustainability and adaptation to a climate change scenario.

This vision requires that the Coastal Observatory becomes a powerful link between academic work and the territory.

It leads us to be active actors in the development of scientific evidence for public policies, which promote the integrated management of coastal zones and their changes, with special emphasis on influencing the policy of the coastline.

MISSION

The Coastal Observatory, is a scientific and technological platform, coordinated by the UC Institute of Geography , with the participation of other academic units UC and regional universities, which seeks to serve as a link between academia, public and private institutions and civil society in its breadth, in relation to phenomena of anthropization of the coastal zone in Chile.

Its mission is to generate research and disseminate applied scientific knowledge on urban occupation, productive and extractive uses and evolutionary processes of the coast and coastal marine zone, which threaten the sustainability of the vital ecosystem services on which the development of the country depends.

Scientific evidence will be aimed at contributing to the agenda and decision-making regarding governance, public policies, territorial planning and integrated management of coastal areas, with the purpose of contributing to the environmental sustainability of the coast in a context of climate change. .

The Coastal Observatory It especially seeks to scientifically influence the solution of the multiple territorial needs of an anthropized coast, which requires promoting initiatives for protection and rational use for the adaptation and mitigation of global change and climate change in particular.

Various actors influence these solutions, where the Observatory will be a main bridge, whose contents will promote:

Environmental justice.
The sustainable rational use of natural resources.
The protection of fragile environments (such as beaches, wetlands and dunes).

All of them, essential for adaptation and mitigation, that contribute to increasing social and urban resilience with regard to increasingly frequent natural hazards and extreme events.

It will also be a space that encourages informed citizen participation, as well as the development of human capital through the training and delivery of information that allows incorporating a more sustainable view of the coast.

ORGANIZATION

Address

Carolina Martinez

Director

Observatory of the Coast.

steering Committee

Coordination

Academy Members

Members of Foundations and NGOs

Organized Society Members

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