The Future of Coastal Adaptation: Highlights from the Final CoCliCo Workshop

At the final workshop of the CoCliCo project, we came together around a shared urgency:

Coastal zones across Europe face accelerating risks from sea-level rise and climate change—delaying adaptation is not an option.

Over the last four years, CoCliCo has developed a platform and tools to support transformational adaptation—a shift from incremental, reactive responses to creating the tools to inform bold, strategic planning for long-term coastal resilience.

And now, it’s live!

During the final workshop, we explored the project’s key achievements, policy relevance, and the road ahead. Here’s what we discussed:

Session 1: What Did We Learn from CoCliCo?

Kicking us off was Cyril MALLET​, Head of Coastal Risks and Climate Change Unit​ of BRGM​, the CoCliCo project coordinator, Gonéri LE COZANNET. 

​A roundtable with work package leads set the stage with lessons from across the project:

• Paul Sayers (WP1) highlighted the project’s foundation in co-design. CoCliCo didn’t just “deliver to” stakeholders—it built with them. He emphasised the need to consider why adaptation is needed, not just how to do it.
  
• Arjen Luijendijk (WP2) showcased the platform’s technical achievements, including a scalable data lake and scenario-based user tools. Fast-track versions were critical for testing usability early on.
  
• Melisa Menéndez (WP3) detailed advances in mean and extreme sea-level projections. They underscored that mean sea-level rise isn’t the only hazard—waves, tides, and storm surge interactions also drive risk.
  
• Robert Nicholls (WP4) presented a sobering picture: over 6,000 km of Europe’s floodplain coast has a history of erosion, and nearly 2,000 km are home to potentially exposed structures.
  
• Elco Koks (WP5) introduced high-resolution population and infrastructure projections, revealing strong regional differences. In some places, coastal populations may grow, in others decline—emphasising the need for tailored adaptation.
  
• Daniel Lincke (WP6) shared risk and cost-benefit modelling across 41,000 European floodplains. Results show protection is cost-effective on just 7% of Europe’s coast by 2150. Retreat may be optimal in 26%. No one-size-fits-all.
  
• Jacinta Hamley (WP7) reflected on communication efforts: 60+ open-access publications, 238k views, 1k+ platform users in just 3 weeks. CoCliCo didn’t just do science—it made sure people could use it.
  

Session 2: The CoCliCo Platform – From Prototype to Practice

This session by Arjen LUIJENDIJK​ and Etiënne KRAS​ from Deltares, and Angélique MELET​ from Mercator Ocean​, provided a deep dive into the CoCliCo risk platform, now a fully operational prototype.

• The platform offers high-resolution maps under different protection assumptions (high, low, and no defences, and different global heating SSP scenarios) and ready-to-use datasets combining sea-level rise, storm surges, and erosion.
• It’s a flexible tool designed for many end users, from national Flood Directive compliance to local planning in harbour areas.
• Importantly, it enables comparisons between IPCC scenarios, regions, and even types of infrastructure—a powerful resource for risk-informed decisions.
• The web platform is only the tip of the iceberg. For more detailed analysis, users can access and use the Workbench and exploratory tools, using our existing models. They can also access all of our data from the cloud. We have produced more than 30 new data products​.

Session 3: Roundtable with Early Career Scientists

Some of the critical research underpinning CoCliCo comes from our early career scientists: 

• Floris Calkoen mapped Europe’s erosion-prone coasts using satellite data and cloud computing, showing that up to 5,000 km of sandy coastline have been eroding—potentially retreating 30–58 meters by 2100 depending on emissions scenarios.
  • Read recent publication: Enabling coastal analytics at planetary scale 2025 & summary blog: New research: Enabling coastal analytics at planetary scale
• Hedda Bonatz (University of Kiel) presented 1km-resolution population projections along Europe’s coastlines under different socio-economic scenarios (SSPs). She noted that coastal population change is highly dynamic, with some areas growing and others shrinking. This complexity complicates risk planning and could increase residual risk in urban coastal areas, especially if adaptation efforts fall short.
  • Comparing built-up area datasets to assess urban exposure to coastal hazards in Europe
    
• Joël de Plaen (VU Amsterdam) focused on critical infrastructure (CI) exposure, particularly in the power network. Using deep learning models (a Vision Transformer and CNN), he developed a method to detect and map CI assets from satellite imagery—helping fill data gaps that currently hinder regional flood risk assessments. This approach balances asset scarcity with modelling accuracy and has the potential to significantly improve risk-based planning.
  • Towards an open pipeline for the detection of critical infrastructure from satellite imagery—a case study on electrical substations in The Netherlands
• Ulysse Pasquier reviewed accommodation strategies (like elevating buildings), finding that they are underused and poorly integrated in adaptation plans across Europe. Learning from countries like the US could help embed these strategies more widely.
  • A comparative assessment of accommodation strategies based on elevated buildings for coastal adaptation
• Vanessa Völz discussed large-scale cost-benefit adaptation analysis across 40,000 floodplains, highlighting major differences between countries in how they approach protection, retreat, and investment. Her work laid the foundation for future modelling that incorporates local sea-level rise, protection levels, and nature-based solutions.
  • The economically optimal mix and timing of coastal adaptation in Europe to 2150
  • Learning About Sea Level Rise Uncertainty Improves Coastal Adaptation Decisions
    

This research feeds directly into the platform and its user stories, which are tailored decision contexts that guide how information is used.

Session 4: Policy Briefs and Live Demonstrations – CoCliCo, SCORE & PROTECT

Policy leaders from CINEA, the EU Commission, and sister projects SCORE and PROTECT joined to discuss how science becomes policy.

Frederik ACCOE​, Head of Climate Adaptation and Earth System​ at CINEA joined to open our policy event. ​

​

• Salem GHARBIA​ , Atlantic Technological University​, and Olympia PAPADOPOULOU​ Tero​, presented SCORE’s briefs stressing that a 2-meter sea level rise is not a question of if, but when. The project used digital twins and citizen science to help cities adapt.
  
• Gaël DURAND​, CNRS, presented our sister project, PROTECT, which emphasised that mitigation delays adaptation. Melting glaciers could cause up to 40m sea level rise over millennia. The more we mitigate, the more time we gain to adapt.
  
• Gonéri LE COZANNET​ BRGM​ presented CoCliCo’s own policy briefs, which continue to feed into EU climate service thinking by linking local vulnerabilities with high-end sea-level rise scenarios.

Session 5: What Do Practitioners Need?

A panel of end-users highlighted what it takes to move from data to decisions:

• Paul-Antoine Michelangeli (EDF R&D) called for tools that are usable at all levels, not just by experts. Observational data, clear explanations, and treatment of uncertainty are key.
  
• Pär Svensson (City of Malmö) outlined the legal and practical roadblocks: Who’s responsible? Who pays? And how do we get permits for cross-property defences?
  
• Roberto Tomasicchio (Federlogistica), via Paul Sayers, described ports’ gradual adaptation, which is often focused on mitigation. CoCliCo offers an opportunity to raise awareness and provide boundary conditions for their decisions.
  

These stories reinforced that adaptation isn’t just technical—it’s institutional, political, and social.

Session 6: The European Context. How can these research projects support European policies and plans?​

This session explored how CoCliCo and similar projects can inform EU climate strategies, support local adaptation, and integrate into long-term platforms like Copernicus and the Digital Twin of the Ocean.

Alessia Pietrosanti (DG CLIMA)

Alessia emphasised turning research into transformational adaptation. The EU is investing:

• €65B from 2021–2027 across Horizon Europe, Missions, and LIFE
• Over 4,000 projects and 600 staff dedicated to climate
• Upcoming funding calls will support coastal resilience demonstrations, with the goal of scaling up local solutions EU-wide.

Willem Jan Goossen (DG CLIMA)

Willem Jan focused on climate risk assessment:

• EU policy must account for compound risks and high-impact wildcards
• The 2024 Communication on Managing Climate Risks and the 2026 EU Climate Adaptation Plan will strengthen preparedness
• Future strategies aim to reduce vulnerability in coastal regions and promote nature-based solutions
  

Alessandra Cacciari (DG DEFIS – Copernicus)

Alessandra introduced the Copernicus Marine Service, a key tool for monitoring ocean health:

• Combines satellite, in-situ, and model data
• Tracks temperature, sea level, currents, ice, and ocean chemistry
• Produces 300+ products to support EU and local policies
• She highlighted Copernicus as essential for science-based adaptation planning.

Angélique Melet (Mercator Ocean)

Angélique explained how CoCliCo will live on beyond the project:

• Key datasets are being integrated into the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (EDITO) and Copernicus Marine
• A live demo was presented at the UN Ocean Conference 2025
• Next steps include transferring more CoCliCo data and developing user-friendly tools for both beginners and experts
  

Svetlana Jevrejeva (National Oceanography Centre, UK)

Svetlana stressed the urgency of sustainable sea level monitoring:

• Sea level rise is accelerating, increasing flood risk in many areas
• Observations—especially of subsidence and vertical land motion—are vital for adaptation decisions
• Nearly half of Europe’s coastal floodplains are subsiding, a key input in CoCliCo’s assessments

Looking Ahead

Though CoCliCo’s four-year EU Horizon 2020 journey is concluding, the mission continues. The platform has proven what’s possible—now we must work together to embed it into policy, practice, and daily decisions about where and how we live on Europe’s coasts.

Explore, use, and share the platform: platform.coclicoservices.eu