Summary

CoastGIS07 -October 2007, Santander- organized by IH Cantabria and Hispacosta and sponsored by the Regional Government of Cantabria and the support of Autodesk, was the 8th of the series of CoastGIS conferences.

With an important international scope, CoastGIS is a biannual event that began in 1995 in Cork (Ireland). Other relevant venues have been Aberdeen (Scotland), Brest (France), Halifax (Canada), Genoa (Italy), and Sydney and Wollongong (Australia). The next conference will take place in Florianopolis (Brazil) in 2009.

Over 140 professionals -academics, researchers, actors from the public and the private sector- involved in the study and the planning/management of coastal and marine areas attended the CoastGIS07 conference.

The conference was opened by Francisco Martín -the Regional Minister of Environment of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria-, Federico Gutierrez -the Dean of the Universidad de Cantabria-, and Raúl Medina – the Vice-president of the Foundation of the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of Cantabria (FIHAC).

The invited speakers for the plenary sessions were the directors of the main cartographic institutions in Spain –the National Geographic Institute (IGN) and the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC).

In the 21 parallel sessions, a total of 89 works of the highest quality were presented from authors of 20 different countries. The articles along with the PowerPoint presentations are accessible through this website (see section on PAPERS).

Both the Head of the Regional body of the General Directorate of Coast in Cantabria and the Head of the Section for Protected Natural Spaces from the Department of Rural Development of the Regional Government of Cantabria led the technical visit to the ‘Salt marsh of Joyel'.

2 workshops were organized on topics of great interest for the European coastal community: MOTIIVE project and INSPIRE Directive Implementation Rules.

Student Awards, courtesy of ESRI Press and GEO: Connexion International Magazine, were given to the best article (Michelle Greenlaw, Canada) and the best presentation (Marco Tosik , Canada).

In sum, CoastGIS07 offered, once more, a meeting place in which the most relevant issues and the newest breakthroughs in GIS applications for coastal and marine environments were tackled by internationally renowned experts.

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