COASTAL-SOS, or “Coastal Zones Under Intensifying Human Activities and Changing Climate: A Regional Programme Integrating Science, Management and Society to Support Ocean Sustainability”, is an endorsed project of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Led by the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL) at Xiamen University, Coastal-SOS partners cross-sectoral stakeholders, including leading academic institutions, industrial enterprises, non-profit foundations, and nongovernmental/intergovernmental organizations (NGO/IGOs) from East Asian countries to advance scientific understanding of critical coastal ocean health issues. Through interdisciplinary research, we will examine the trajectories of six model East Asian coastal ecosystems over the past 50 years and predict their future (30-year) direction. The Programme enables effective integration of science, governance, and society to fundamentally change the business-as-usual development model of the coastal zone.

Programme Overview

The expected outcomes of COASTAL-SOS are:

1. A novel strategy of cross-sectoral partnership among leading academic institutions, industrial enterprises, non-profit foundations, NGO/IGOs that results in innovation of future programmes to incorporate co-design and co-delivery of research with a goal to achieve shared objectives.

2. A problem-driven and solution-oriented observational network and data platform that houses both historical and newly-generated data collected from model coastal systems, and a coupled numerical modeling system that has diagnostic and predictive capabilities.

3. A decision-making support system and toolbox aided by numerical modelling and the Digital Twin Ocean initiative that will result in integrated coastal management and development of marine spatial planning and ecosystem conservation practices.

COASTAL-SOS Activities and Expected Outcomes