GRK 1598:  INTERCOAST - Integrated Coastal Zone and Shelf-Sea Research

• Subject Area: Geology and Palaeontology ; Atmospheric Science, Oceanography and Climate Research ; Geography
• Term: from 2009 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 112807311

The International Research Training Group will investigate questions of societal relevance relating to the coastal and shelf regions of the Bay of Plenty-Coromandel in New Zealand and of the North Sea in Germany. The research programme focusses on coasts and shelves in both areas, as they have similar coastal problems, despite their wide geographic location disparity. Both coastal and shelf zones have much in common, including existing and expanding settlement, intensifying harbour development and ship traffic, coastal land use conversion for housing and industry, fisheries and aquaculture industries, tourism and, particularly important for the future, energy production from the marine realm and wind parks.
These activities and their impacts necessitate environmental intervention: dredging for shipping channels and wharves, land reclamation, and infrastructure development for homes, factories, and population mobility, sewage treatment etc. Overriding such intensifying development, global change exerts strong impacts on both the German North Sea and the Bay of Plenty regions. In both areas this rapid population increase, commercial development and recreational usage require long-term and careful planning, paying special attention to the principles of sustainable and precautionary, environmentally sound, and conservation-oriented economic practices.
It is the goal of the Research Training Group to provide fundamental knowledge regarding oceanographic, sedimentological, biological and chemical processes as well as socio-economic interactions and legal effects. Such knowledge is a prerequisite for a sustainable utilisation of coastal and shelf-sea areas. Hence, the focus will be on the themes environmental change, development impacts and societal aspects. This planned research can only be conducted in an interdisciplinary framework, ranging from the natural sciences to legal, economic and sociological disciplines. In addition, soft skills and management courses as well as further occupational qualifications will be offered.
PhD students of the Research Training Group will visit the partner university for approximately one third of their three-year-term. During the visits, they will work together with leading scientists in their research fields. The overall aim of this International Research Training Group is to qualify a new generation of young and highly motivated scientists with an interdisciplinary background, who are ready to tackle future challenges and are well prepared for their future professional careers from exposure to a variety of coastal and shallow shelf environments.

• DFG Programme: International Research Training Groups
• International Connection: New Zealand
• Applicant Institution: Universität Bremen
• IRTG-Partner Institution: University of Waikato
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Katrin Huhn-Frehers
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Barry Barton; Dr. Lars Brabyn; Dr. Karin Bryan; Professor Dr. John C. Campbell; Professor Dr. Alexander Mathew Gillespie; Dr. Mark Hadfield; Dr. Willem de Lange; Dr. Vicki Moon; Dr. Julia Mullarney; Dr. Conrad Pilditch
• Participating Researchers: Dr. Alexander Bartholomä; Professor Dr. Kai Bischof; Professor Dr. Tilo von Dobeneck; Professor Dr. Michael Flitner; Professor Dr. Dierk Hebbeln; Professor Dr. Achim Kopf; Professorin Ingrid Kröncke, Ph.D.; Privatdozent Dr. Till Markus; Professor Dr. Tobias Mörz; Dr. André Paul; Professor Dr. Michael Schulz; Professor Dr. Christian Winter
• IRTG-Partner: Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christopher Battershill