BU Research Blog

In June of this year, Dr Luciana Esteves will be running a Researcher Links workshop, funded by the British Council, in South Africa.  The workshop will support Early Career Researchers with an interest in the sustainable management of coasts and estuaries to network, increase their knowledge and develop potential collaborations for future research.

Coastal and estuarine ecosystems worldwide are under pressure from population growth, urbanisation and other land-based and marine activities. In the UK and South Africa, coastal areas greatly contribute to the local and national economy by supporting key urban centres and industries. Climate change tends to exacerbate existing problems, including but not limited to flooding, erosion, water quality and resource availability, which can have implications on environmental quality, food production, water supply and human health.Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has emerged as an integrated approach for the sustainable management of the trade-offs between socioeconomic development and nature conservation. EBM requires a transdisciplinary understanding of the natural system, nature-human interactions, and how they change through time.

The workshop will bring together researchers from South Africa and the UK to discuss how they can collaborate to support EBM through the development of long-lasting UK-SA collaboration and government-research partnerships. The workshop aims to attract researchers from the social and natural sciences to create the required combination of expertise to co-construct, advance and share knowledge to support estuarine and coastal EBM. The integration of scientific and practical knowledge will be facilitated by the participation of NGOs and government practitioners.

The workshop is currently open for applications.  Early Career Researchers from the UK and South Africa are invited to apply by 16 March 2018.  Further information about the workshop, eligibility criteria and how to apply can be found here.