Bridging the legal-institutional gap in mediterranean coastline management
Professor Rachelle Alterman was the Project Head and Coordinator of the Mare Nostrum project.
Mare Nostrum was a 3-year project (2013-2016), funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. It explored new ways of enhancing existing policies for preserving the Mediterranean coastline. Although the project is officially over, several partners continue to research and publish on the critical subject of coastal zone management.
Scroll down for main project reports, academic publications, media coverage and more.
Project reports
- Alterman, R., Adam, R., Fox, J., & Pellach, C. (Eds.) (2013) First Interim Report: Existing Knowledge on Legal-Institutional Frameworks for Coastline Management: The International, EU and National Levels.
- Lalenis, K. & Papatheocharis, I. (Eds.) (2015) Second Report: Existing Practices and Impediments to Implementation: The Local and Cross-National Level.
- Alterman, R., Pellach, C., & Carmon, D., (2016) Final Report: Legal-Institutional Instruments for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean.
Academic publications which emerged from the project:
- Rachelle Alterman and Cygal Pellach (eds.) Regulating Coastal Zones: International Perspectives on Land Management Instruments. Routledge (Open Access).
- Na’ama Teschner (2018): The battle over the commons in port cities, Urban
Geography. - Paraschos Melidis & Georgios Sylaios (2017): Assessment of Urban Pollution Footprint in a Typical Mediterranean Semi-Enclosed Gulf, Environmental Processes.
- Georgios k. Sylaios, Konstantinos Lalenis, Sotiria Anastasiou, Ioannis Papatheocharis, and Nikolaos Kokkos (2015). A Tool for Coastal Setbacks Demarcation over Rough, Impermeable Shores: The Test Case of Kavala Coastline (Northern Greece). Coastal Management, 43:519–538.
Project media coverage:
- Jerusalem Post – “Israel’s Mediterranean: A ‘Wild West,’ but with waves of progress” – Click for French Edition PDF, published 29 January, 2017; Click for English Edition PDF, published 4th February 2017.
- Calcalist – “The State of our Coastlines is OK, but we have a long way to go” (Hebrew) – 9 November, 2015 (based on a talk by Professor Rachelle Alterman at the Ashdod Sustainability Conference, Israel – see below). Click for PDF version.
- Calcalist – “We have marked a line 300 metres from the coast, but what about the land beyond that line?” – 4 November 2015. Click for PDF version.
- Calcalist – (Are we) Returning to the Era of Real Estate “Monsters” on the Coastline? (Hebrew) – 20 August, 2015 (using Mare Nostrum research findings). Click for scanned PDF version.
- Israel 21C – Jordanian-Israeli Environmentalists Unite for Cross-Border Cooperation – 13 April, 2015
- Haaretz – Fighting them on the beaches: the greens protecting Israel’s coastline – 22 January 2015
- Haifa Municipality local project announcement (Hebrew)
- Green Prophet – Clear your coast – and row for the sea! – 17 September, 2014
- Leading article in Israeli magazine Mivnim (‘Structures’, Hebrew) – Preservation of the Mediterranean Coastline – September 2014
- Mare Nostrum Project – Podcast – 13 Aug 2014
- Malta Independent – Mare Nostrum calls for Mediterranean action to stop cliff erosion – 4 August, 2013
- Haaretz – While EU study praises Israel for taking care of its beaches, environmental activists less than satisfied – 24 May 2013. Hebrew version – here and here.
- Green Prophet – Mare Nostrum to Save the Mediterranean Sea from Coastline Development – 6 May, 2013
- The Jerusalem Post – Cross-border Mediterranean project led by Technion scholar get 4.3m euros – 4 March 2013
- The Marker (Hebrew) – EU Project on Coastal Preservation to be Led by the Technion – 3 March 2013
Presentation of the project and its outcomes at conferences and other events:
- The State of Israel’s Coastline from a Comparative Perspective – Ashdod Sustainability Conference, Israel. Click here for a video of the presentation (Hebrew).
- Rachelle Alterman, Dafna Carmon and Cygal Pellach: “The High Hopes of ICZM Confronted by Legal-Institutional Implementation Gaps” – MEDCOAST Conference, October 2015.
- Rachelle Alterman, “The High Hopes of ICZM in the Face of Legal-Institutional Implementation Gaps: Comparative Analysis of Mediterranean Countries” (Mare Nostrum Project) AESOP Conference, July 2015.
- “Bridging the implementation GAP in Integrated Coastline Management: Lowering the legal-institutional barriers” at Member States Expert Groups Integrated Coastal Management – Maritime Spatial Planning, Brussels, April 21-22 2015
- Rachelle Alterman, Dafna Carmon and Cygal Pellach, “The high hopes of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the face of legal-institutional implementation gaps: Comparative Analysis of Mediterranean Countries. Ninth Annual conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR). Volos, Greece Feb. 24-27, 2015.
- Na’ama Teschner and Rachelle Alterman, “Implementaiton gaps in the city-port interface”. Ninth Annual conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR). Volos, Greece Feb. 24-27, 2015.
- “Same Seas, Different Coastlines: Disparities in the national demarcation of coastlines across the EU” at Plenary Meeting of the Permanent Committee on Cadastre in the EU. 23-25 June 2014.
- Rachelle Alterman and Rachel Adam. “The Implementation Gap in Integrated Coastal Zone Management Laws and Policies”. MEDCOAST Global Congress on ICZM, Marmaris, Turkey, Oct. 29-Nov. 2 2013.
For more information: