CoastGIS 2006

The seventh CoastGIS Conference was held at the University of Wollongong, Australia in July. Previous conferences have been held in Ireland, Scotland (twice), France, Canada and Italy. This was the first time that CoastGIS had been held in the Southern Hemisphere.

CoastGIS 2006 was the latest in a series of international conferences on research and applications for Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in the marine and coastal zone. The idea for a series of symposia entitled 'CoastGIS' was born from collaboration between the International Cartographic Association's Commission on Marine Cartography and the International Geographical Union's Commission on Coastal Systems. In the early 1990s, both were aiming to find a vehicle through which coastal issues and technological processes could be examined, and means by which recent advances in the mapping of the world's coastal zones could jointly find an outlet. This has taken on an increased significance with each conference.



Events began with a pre-conference workshop centred on the Sydney Olympic Games site, renowned for its successful example of wetland ecosystem restoration. Participants inspected the site and held a workshop at the Sydney Olympic Park Authority's eco-friendly facilities, located within a remarkable and previously severely degraded coastal estuarine environment.



Keynote speakers at the conference included Captain Rod Nairn, Hydrographer of Australia, and Dr Neil Williams, CEO of Geoscience Australia. The Hydrographer emphasised the fundamental contribution of the Australian Hydrographic Service in coastal and maritime environmental activity. Dr Williams went on to highlight the significant contribution Geoscience Australia is making to Australia's maritime geospatial infrastructure, with particular contributions underpinning maritime boundaries, coastal habitat mapping and littoral disaster modelling.



The first day of conference followed a parallel session format; one stream concentrating on hydrography, oceanography and associated technologies, the other dealing more specifically with detailed studies of the coastal marine environment. This left many delegates with an awkward choice between attending sessions within their own area of specialisation or venturing to learn more about associated applications and related technologies. I fear that most chose the former option, and an opportunity to learn from and about 'the other half' was lost. Nevertheless, ground was regained during the many informal discussions at the social events that took place over the four days. In addition to a pre-conference reception, delegates enjoyed drinks and light refreshments during the trade exhibition and poster-session, and the following night at the conference dinner.



The second day covered impacts on the coastal environment: climate change and, more generally, human impacts. A range of speakers provided practical examples of work underway to measure and thereby regulate for some of these effects. The third day returned to the parallel-session format, splitting mapping and modelling into two streams.



The formal sessions ended with one of the founding organisers of the CoastGIS series, Darius Bartlett of the University of Cork, with Dr Peter Cowell of the University of Sydney, Roger Longhorn and Jacques Populus of IFREMER France leading a closing discussion. This highlighted the continuing developments in linking landward and seaward elements of the coast into truly unified, seamless three- and four-dimensional geospatial databases. Speakers also noted how over successive meetings the focus of CoastGIS had shifted towards more advanced and computationally intensive analyses. These included integration of GIS with an ever-greater diversity of Earth Observation and positioning technologies. Also, connection of GIS with numerical modelling techniques, greater use of geostatistical and related methods of quantitative analysis, increased use of dynamic and animated visualisations, including fly-throughs and a greater use of internet technologies for integrating databases, publishing data and information and connecting stakeholders and user-groups from a wide range of interests. They also saw increasing attention being given to the technical and organisational/human-related contributions that emergent spatial data infrastructures might make in assisting integrated and sustainable coastal-zone management.



And for those who still wanted more, a post-conference field-trip provided delegates with the opportunity to explore the coast between Wollongong and Jervis Bay, visiting some of the beautiful beaches and estuaries and finally ending up on the spectacular white sands of Jervis Bay.



CoastGIS2006 was a most enjoyable, informative and well-organised event. With 150 participants from eighteen countries representing a wide range of academic, governmental and commercial interests, there was ample opportunity to advance the use of GIS in the coastal zone. Likely venues for future CoastGIS conference include northern Spain (2008) and Brazil (2010). Keep abreast at www.coastgis.org and review CoastGIS’06 at http://www.uow.edu.au/science/eesc/conferences/docs/coastgis06_photos.pdf.