Co-Growth Module 5 Webinar – Innovative Solutions for Coastal Resilience

Webinar Overview

The fifth and final webinar of the Sustainable Coastal Growth and Resilience (Co-Growth) course concludes the programme by exploring innovative solutions that can strengthen coastal resilience in the face of climate change.

Bringing together experts from Europe and Asia, the session focuses on two complementary perspectives. The first examines how Digital Twins and Nature-based Solutions can support evidence-based coastal management through scenario analysis and advanced modelling. The second explores marine biogeochemical processes in the Pacific Ocean and how climate variability influences marine ecosystems and ocean productivity.

The webinar highlights the importance of integrating cutting-edge digital technologies, ecosystem science, and climate research to develop sustainable strategies that enhance the resilience of coastal environments and communities.

Speaker 1

Dr. Joanna Staneva

Hereon

Title

Digital Twins and Nature-Based Solutions: What-If Scenarios for Coastal Resilience

Abstract

Digital Twins create new opportunities to design and evaluate Nature-based Solutions for coastal resilience. By integrating observations, process-based models, climate projections, and artificial intelligence, they enable interactive "what-if" scenarios to assess wave attenuation, erosion reduction, and flood protection, supporting evidence-based decisions for sustainable and climate-resilient coastal management.

Biography

Dr. Joanna Staneva is Deputy Director of the Hereon Institute of Coastal Systems and Head of Hydrodynamics and Data Assimilation. She is one of the four Co-Chairs of the UN Ocean Decade Programme Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO). Her research focuses on coastal modelling, forecasting, Nature-based Solutions, and Digital Twins for coastal resilience.

Speaker 2

Prof. Fei Chai

Xiamen University

Title

Changing coastal waters and impact on marine ecosystems in the China Seas

Biography

China´s coastal regions are under increasing pressure from both climate change and intensive human activity. The China coastal regions are particularly threatened by marine heatwaves, eutrophication, red tides and hypoxia events. In this talk, I will illustrate a few examples in the China Seas and offer some remarks for the future directions of integrating observations, modeling, and digital twins.

Biography

Prof. Fei Chai is a professor at Xiamen University, where his research focuses on ocean carbon cycling, nutrient dynamics, and ecosystem modelling. He leads observational and modelling studies across the South China Sea and the Western Pacific, aiming to better understand the impacts of climate variability on marine biogeochemistry and ecosystem productivity.