Abstract
<jats:p>Coastal areas are particularly complex due to their high vulnerability to the growing risks of climate change and the interplay of multiple interactions between land and marine environments. However, resilient solutions are rarely systemically implemented, that is, encompassing the socio-ecological system as a whole. The Mar Menor coastal lagoon (Murcia, Southeastern Spain) constitutes an emblematic example of how climatic risks interact with unsustainable manament and lack of governance to cause dramatic and long-lasting ecological impacts with also important social and economic consequences. A series of measures have been planned and partially implemented since the eutrophic crisis of Mar Menor lagoon in 2016 but, despite some improvements, important gaps remain for an integral, adaptive and sustainable management of the lagoon and its watershed. The Coastscapes projec (Rethinking coastal landscapes with climate-resilient interventions: systemic land-to-sea solutions), an Horizon Europe demonstration project in which the Mar Menor site is one of the three core pilot sites.Coastscapes project, coordinated by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, involves 31 entities from the academic, business, technological, and environmental sectors across 15 different countries. The goal of Coast-Scapes is to rethink the management of coastal landscapes (deltas, coastal lagoons, bays...) to promote resilience, biodiversity benefits, and risk reduction in the face of climate change. Using a systemic perspective and a transdisciplinary and intersectoral approach, comprehensive solutions will be designed and evaluated in a collaborative and participatory manner. Available data, indicators, dynamic models, Nature-based Solutions, early warning and climate systems, and economic analyses based on the best available knowledge will be used.In Mar Menor case, climate change may increase several risks affecting the system: The increase in big rainfall events and floods, as well the increase in temperatures will facilitate the occurrence of eutrophication processes and anoxia events. The increase in temperatures may also cause the death of the Caulerpa prolifera meadows, generating massive death events. Climate change can make irrigated lands more vulnerable to droughts and even more dependent on groundwater bodies, already declared “at risk” of non-compliance with the environmental objectives in Mar Menor site, due to groundwater overexploitation and pollution.In the framework of Coastscapes project, the effectiveness of actual and planned measures in the watershed and in the lagoon will be assessed and support will be provided to initiatives in the agricultural sector, particulary for non-irrigated agriculture, that are climatically resilient, compatible with the ecological recovery of the lagoon and have also added social values. </jats:p>