Green Tides: Resilience Conversations

Green Tides è un podcast in cinque episodi, in lingua inglese, dedicato alla resilienza costiera. La serie unisce narrazione scritta e interviste a esperti per spiegare che cosa significa resilienza costiera e come si costruisce: attraverso storia, educazione, tecnologia, giustizia ambientale e collaborazione.

La serie è distribuita in lingua inglese, con la visibilità istituzionale internazionale all'interno della comunità del Decennio del Mare ONU come obiettivo primario. Dà voce a scienziati, giovani professionisti, partner istituzionali e comunità impegnati in prima linea sul cambiamento delle coste.

Perché la resilienza costiera?
Una costa non è una cartolina immobile: è un sistema vivo e dinamico. Mentre il livello del mare si alza, le tempeste si intensificano e l'erosione accelera, la domanda non è più se le coste cambieranno, ma se le comunità sono pronte ad affrontarlo.

La resilienza costiera è la capacità dei sistemi naturali e socioeconomici di assorbire una perturbazione e continuare a funzionare nel cambiamento: non “congelando” le coste nel tempo, ma aiutandole ad adattarsi, resistere e riprendersi. Green Tides traduce questo concetto in storie, scienza e persone, rendendo tangibile e umano un tema tecnico.

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Episode 5 - Co-Designing the Coast: From Science to Shared Solutions

Over the past five weeks, Green Tides has taken listeners on a journey through the many dimensions of coastal resilience—from its scientific foundations and the role of education and capacity development, to digital innovation and the experiences of island communities living on the frontline of climate change.

In this final episode, we bring these perspectives together by exploring one of the key ingredients of effective coastal resilience: collaboration.
How do we transform scientific knowledge into practical solutions?
How can research better support the decisions of governments, institutions, and coastal communities?
Episode 5 explores how co-design, stakeholder engagement, and the DCC-CR's Partner Alliance Network (PAN) are helping bridge the gap between science and society. Bringing together scientists, engineers, policymakers, institutions, and local stakeholders, these collaborative approaches ensure that coastal resilience is not only scientifically sound, but also accessible, actionable, and responsive to real-world needs.
Through the experiences of HEREON and Deltares, two leading European research institutes and members of the DCC-CR's Partner Alliance Network, the episode highlights how predictive services, open-source models, capacity building, and international collaboration are turning research into practical tools that support more resilient coastal futures.
Featuring Joanna Staneva, Head of Department at HEREON, and Loreta Cornacchia, Researcher at Deltares, this concluding episode shows that resilience is never the result of a single technology, institution, or discipline. It is built through dialogue, shared knowledge, and long-term partnerships.

Episode 4 - Community Resilience in Island States

In this episode, we explore the challenges and opportunities facing coastal communities at the frontline of climate change.
From sea-level rise and coastal erosion to extreme weather events and ecosystem degradation, islands are experiencing some of the most immediate impacts of a changing ocean. At the same time, they are demonstrating how regional cooperation, ocean science, and capacity development can strengthen resilience and support sustainable coastal futures.
Featuring Lorna Inniss, Head of the IOCARIBE Secretariat, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, and Wenxi Zhu, Head of the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the episode explores how international collaboration, knowledge exchange, and science-based approaches are helping island and coastal communities build resilience across the Caribbean and the Western Pacific.

Episode 3 - Digital Twin of the Ocean: The New Frontiers of Coastal Science

What if we could test the impact of a storm before it ever reaches the coast?
We step inside the Digital Twin of the Ocean: a living, virtual replica of the real ocean, continuously updated with satellite data, coastal sensors, ocean models and artificial intelligence.
We explore how digital twins, AI, high-performance computing and forecasting systems help scientists and decision-makers anticipate coastal flooding, erosion, wave overtopping and other climate-related hazards, and what it takes, behind the scenes, to make those simulations reliable and secure.
Featuring Dott. Giovanni Coppini, scientist at CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change), Megi Hoxhaj, telecommunications engineer and technical lead at CMCC, and Salvatore Causio, Coastal Ocean Modeler at CMCC.

Credits
Green Tides is a podcast by the DCC-CR (Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience), produced by Podstar.
Narrator: Federica Orsi
Writing: Lorenzo Molino
Sound design: Antonio Mezzadra
Graphics: Laura Fracasso
Producer: Ester Memeo
Production support: Annalisa Prestianni
Special thanks to CMCC – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and Deltares.

Episode 2 - Educating for Coastal Futures: Training the Scientists and Citizens of Tomorrow

How can education protect the future of our coasts?
We unpack why ocean literacy is a core pillar of coastal resilience for scientists, citizens, communities, policymakers, and young professionals facing climate and ocean challenges firsthand.
We follow learners from Brazil to Nigeria, the Philippines and beyond through DCC-CR programmes such as Co-Growth, COMPASS and the OceanTeacher Global Academy, seeing how training turns knowledge into action, from climate adaptation and marine conservation to remote sensing, water-quality monitoring and community-based solutions.
Featuring Prof. Villy Kourafalou, Scientific Director of the DCC-CR; Isadora Timbó, coastal-resilience and climate-adaptation project lead at GITEC and member of the Women’s League for the Ocean; Abe Woo, Early Career Ocean Professional (ECOP); and Esther Kadiene, Lecturer in marine and environmental biology at Delta State University, Abraka (Nigeria).

Episode 1 - Why Coastal Resilience Matters: A Historical and Systemic Perspective

What does coastal resilience actually mean? And why does it shape the future of every coastline on Earth?
In this opening episode of Green Tides, we trace how coastal resilience moved from a niche term to a global priority, from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 2030 to the UN Ocean Decade. Then we get concrete, exploring how sea-level rise, coastal erosion, pollution and the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are reshaping coastal environments and the communities that depend on them.
You’ll come away understanding why protecting the coast is not about freezing it in time, but about helping coastal ecosystems and societies adapt, resist and recover under change.
Featuring Prof. Nadia Pinardi, Director of the Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience (DCC-CR) and oceanographer; Prof. Elena Fabbri, Marine Physiologist and Head of the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna; and Prof. Greta Tellarini, Full Professor of Navigation and Transport Law, Department of Law, University of Bologna.