An opportunity for citizen scientists, from Millom to Merseyside, to help build a valuable and detailed picture of the North West coastline has been developed by researchers at Lancaster University.
From coastal erosion to footpaths and from flora and fauna to flooding, the team from ImaginationLancaster, the University's design-led research centre, have created a unique 'mapping for the future' tool which uses 12 themes to capture what the community think is important about the coastline.
Starting this week, members of the public are encouraged to use the new digital mapping platform to present their views, ideas and images on a whole range of topics to try and build a clear picture of the coastline.
The project is part of 'Our Future Coast' project, led by Wyre Borough Council and funded by Defra as part of the £150 million Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme which is managed by the Environment Agency to develop and test new approaches to resilience tailored to local communities.
The 'Our Future Coast' project, which stretches along the North West Coast, is currently testing different ways to try and make these habitats better at protecting us in the face of climate change and sea level rise. Healthy saltmarsh and active dunes can grow and move to keep pace with sea level rise and help to protect the shoreline by providing natural flood plains and basins.
ImaginationLancaster's Map.Social - MAGE (Morecambe Area Gaming Environment) offers a different approach in putting the community at the heart of the 'Our Future Coast' project in designing a way forward.
Starting with community engagement events to demonstrate the sandbox and future scenarios in place in Morecambe and Silverdale later this year, the project's modelling and interaction tools will expand to other parts of the North West Coast at a later stage.
"Coastal Communities are at the front-line of climate challenge," says Project Manager Dr Paul Cureton from ImaginationLancaster. "It is not possible to protect the whole coast with hard engineering. Simply put, there isn't enough money, and it is not a good long-term solution.
"So, we need to get really good at working with nature - using saltmarsh and sand dunes as a coastal defence."
Community members are invited to use the MAGE map engagement tool to add notes, photographs and descriptions of places important and valuable to them from across the region, with the results used by researchers to help build a 'sandbox' or digital playground testbed.
"It's really simple to use," says Dr Cureton, who also provides a video guide on using the mapping tool, which works on the web or via a smartphone, on the ImaginationLancaster MAGE website.
"Following public input into Map.Social, we want to develop MAGE, which is a 'sandbox', or 'playground testbed', for science communication, decision support and public engagement to help better understand the science of the coast and interact with various climate scenarios.
"This will enable people to 'play' with future scenarios involving the coastline to help them understand the science of the coast and interact with various climate scenarios.
"Think of it as a sort of digital chessboard on which you can move around the pieces, and it shows the impact with an array of likely scenarios and coastal models. It will enable us to communicate the changes to the public via a tabletop serious game."
Dr Cureton's project is one of several on the 'Our Future Coast' project, along with those presented by other organisations, including parish councils, wildlife organisations, landowners and other researchers.
"This is something I have wanted to do for ages," said Dr Cureton. "Coastal science is really interesting and exciting and I want to get people's opinions in the most engaging way possible. This will potentially be a really rich open dataset of community values for the North West Coastline."
