What are the training seminars?

The YLF trainer team created well-targeted training units on scientific techniques, soft skills, and understanding of pressures and drivers in coastal areas in order to prepare future decision makers for their professional role in coastal management. So far, the following training seminars are offered:

It is vital that countries in the Asia‐Pacific region have the capacity to conduct high quality research that provides underpinning scientific support for policy‐makers and policy‐making processes. The APN believes that research must involve local scientists and that they must be given the capacity to continue their research, and analyze and utilize their research outcomes. Under the APN’s capacity development programme, CAPaBLE, early‐career scientists from developing countries in the Asia‐Pacific region are provided with opportunities to develop their knowledge and capabilities in global change research. One of APN’s 4 goals is improving the scientific and technical capabilities of nations in the region and, in this regards, the APN conducts Proposal Development Training Workshops (PDTWs) in various parts of the region to impart the skills necessary to write a competitive proposal for funding to the APN. Most recently, PDTWs were held in Shanghai, New York, Kobe, Pune and Manila back to back with other important meetings that brought together international participants.
The training workshop is composed of the following:
A.
Pre‐Workshop Assignment (2‐4 weeks prior to the YLF): There will be a pre‐workshop group assign‐ment and 4 groups consisting of 5 trainees and one mentor will be assigned a proposal‐writing task before arriving in Yantai, China.
B.
Training Workshop
i)
Overview and discussion of the APN and its Proposals Process with detailed guidelines and advice on submitting proposals to the APN for funding. Speakers will include members from APN’s proposal review panel, membership, and successful project leaders. (180 min.)
ii)
Proposal‐writing session where the 4 groups will gather together with their mentors and develop their proposal further and then present (oral presentation by PPT) to the workshop. (180 min.)
iii)
Proposal review session where each group will have the opportunity to review their peer groups’ proposals according to specific criteria and present their findings via oral presentation. (180 min.)
iv)
Discussion and feedback session on general strengths and weaknesses of the group proposals and opportunities for future collaboration (60 min.). 3
Trainees will:

- Have a raised awareness of the APN and an increased capacity to write a proposal to the APN and compete effectively in its competitive annual calls for proposals (for research and capacity development) in the Asia‐Pacific region.

- Understand that effective regional project management requires a great deal more than “just doing the science” to succeed.

- Have increased capacity to work in groups and understand effective communication is crucial to a successful research team working at the regional or international levels.

Coastal ecosystem is a Natural Capital (NC). Like manufactured capital (MC) it helps in production of multiple goods and services to generate human well‐being. But unlike MC it is not produced by human effort and is limited in supply over time. The services produced by this NC are tangible and intangible. Human society manages (plans investment, allocation, preservation, conservation etc) all sorts of capital through its institutions of market and/or regulation. But these institutions are limited by their scope driven by commercial/exchange value of capital, goods and services. Not all goods and services from NC pass through market mechanism. Those services/goods which the market mechanism cannot value are assumed by current regulatory/management institutions as abundant and are allocated free of cost or are not at all accounted for in regulation, formal management system. Many coastal ecosystem services have such non market value. Those having market value are also sometimes undervalued and are thus increasing stress on the NC service flow, affecting finally the human well‐being. Therefore, appropriate valuation of coastal ecosystem services and level of uncertainties there in are crucial to know for making practical management efficient. The central question is if economic well‐being is at the core of human system then correcting the valuation system for goods and services at the core needs to be a reality.
This training seminar focuses on interaction in a learning mode: YLF participants are encouraged to learn together how to identify, correctly value and aggregate coastal ecosystem services. All selected participants will be provided an information checklist prior to the YLF in order to prepare specific information of their local environment. The aimed output of the training (take home knowledge) is that all participants will have carried out a local coastal ecosystem valuation on the basis of current methods (baseline).

The training seminar contains an introduction on the monitoring of human impacts on coastal areas: What can we measure? What do we need to know to take action? What are the specifics of coastal ecosystems? Thereafter, five cases are offered to be further discussed by the students on the basis of available documentation and information. The following issues are targeted:

- The impact of the construction of a new harbour, long‐term and spatial elements as well as conse‐quences of linked environmental issues (contaminants, turbidity changes, risk of ship collisions) 5

- Installation of an offshore wind park with many single wind turbines

- Use of marine resources and potential drawbacks for other users and stakeholders

- Marine protected areas or nature reserves in coastal regions

- Need for coastal observations and monitoring research.

After intensive discussions in groups, the students should present their findings in a logical way: problem description, environmental issues, suggestions to solve problems, interaction with stakeholders, and final conclusions. The students are asked to present their findings in a short PPT presentation in an understandable way to the plenary. Printed and written documentation will be available for the five cases.

The topics covered in this training module include:
Basics of ICM: Background to ICM – Sustainability and Sustainable ICM – ICM and Social Nature – Competing Claims and Visions of the Coast – ICM and Interdisciplinarity
Practice oriented learning: Case studies (examples will be provided) – Resource survey – Learning through observation – Observing in practice – Participatory observation – Interpreting observations
Integrating disciplinary perspectives: Social science insights – Natural science insights
At the end of this training programme, the participants have

- Gained an appreciation of the wide range of environmental, social and economic dimensions to coastal areas and the associated conflicts and problems

- Experienced the complexity of the process of ICZM through a case study

- Engaged with and appreciate the ICZM process through a training framework and matrix‐based decision making technique to identifying potential management solutions for a coastal area

- Experienced a process of negotiation to arrive at consensus approach to management issues identified from a case study area, and

- Demonstrated their capability and capacity for ICZM through exercises to prepare an ICZM plan.

The discussion about a stronger integration of research among different scientific disciplines becomes more and more prominent in particular in areas where science should deliver knowledge to societal questions. Integrated global change research establishes a link between not only scientific disciplines but also user communities, policy makers and other stakeholders, by co‐designing of knowledge with help of integrated/coupled methods or concepts. Together with ISSC, ICSU and NKGCF, the Earth System Sciences Partnership is one of the co‐sponsors of a scientific conference that aims to discuss different dimensions of integration in more detail. ESSP would like the participants of the YLF to take an active part in co‐designing the guidelines and best practices for integration of Sciences. This is a real life exercising that can allow them to gain a perspective of different levels of science community.
In particular, they will discuss three major dimensions of integration (co‐mutuality):

- Across‐fields (multi‐, and interdisciplinary)
Possible outcomes: More frequent co‐production of agenda’s and knowledge of GEC and develop‐mental challenges at all levels.

- Co‐production (stakeholders, thrust, transdisciplinary)
Possible outcomes: Increase in participate of various stakeholders in the co‐designing and production of agenda’s and knowledge of GEC and developmental challenges at all levels.

- Cross‐cultural
Possible outcomes: Increase in participation of scientists and stakeholders from the global south in the co‐design and production of agenda’s and knowledge of GEC and developmental challenges at all levels (e.g. multi theoretical / socio‐geographic / cultural).

Language and communications would cut across all three dimensions. Other issues/barriers to ‘co‐mutuality’ e.g. infrastructure, language, IT, tradition, funding, educational systems, national science‐policy will be discussed as well during this session. The outcome of this exercise will be presented at the Integrated Sciences Conference, taking place 10‐12 November, 2011, in Berlin, Germany.

More and more people and communities are affected by environmental hazards throughout the world such as floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and other events. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that climate change will increase the frequency and magnitude of some of these hazards in the future. More than ever, decision‐makers and practitioners in the field of disaster risk management need to have the tools to measure the vulnerability and risk of exposed populations, in order to prevent these hazard events becoming disasters. However, vulnerability and risk assessment requires an understanding of many processes that interact amongst each other through feedback loops at various spatial and temporal scales and are therefore not easy to characterise.

During this training module, the YLF participants will be exposed to the most recent theory and frameworks in vulnerability and risk assessment: UNU‐EHS being currently involved in several projects which aim at developing these frameworks, the most recent findings will be made available to the participants. This will be followed by a discussion on methods to capture quantitative and qualitative data for indicator generation. Subsequently, there will be a practical unit on selecting key indicators to characterise the vulnerability of communities to different types of coastal hazards, such as storm surges/tsunamis, coastal erosion, river‐flooding in coastal cities (group exercises), and a second practical unit on questionnaire design to capture the data for these indicators (group exercise). After each group exercise, each group will share their results with the entire group to stimulate discussions and exchange of ideas.

Complementing the YLF training seminars on scientific communication and proposal writing skills, this practical training unit is designed to build expertise in writing scientific papers and to provide advice on how to publish in international journals. It aims to train the skills of early‐career scientists (ECS) to enable them to make effective written presentations that communicate information clearly and concisely.
Science is incomplete unless the research results are effectively disseminated to the wider community. The scientist’s responsibility does not end with the completion of empirical field work, but results must also be communicated to potential users of the knowledge generated: the scientific community, funders, and decision makers in policy and practice. Only then can the scientist claim to have made a real contribution to the existing body of research‐based knowledge. Moreover, a good publication increases the chances of attracting new funding and collaborators and improves young careers since the scientific work will be seen as relevant, reliable, and good quality.
Paradoxically, academic curricula often do not support and develop the skills needed to accomplish the vital task of writing research articles is a rare endeavour at universities. To better prepare the ECS for research careers, the training seminar targets the writing skills gap and leads the YLF participants through the process of organising and writing a scientific paper. Enhanced oral and video lectures, discussions, and practice exercises are the predominant training methods in this seminar. At the end of the training, the participants will have developed their skills in organising a scientific paper, in preparing each section of a paper to communicate scientific information effectively, and in preparing a scientific abstract of their own research. The seminar follows the IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) format, covering the following topics:

- Communicating science: talk, poster, paper

- Outlining a scientific paper

- Preparing an abstract

- Writing the introduction and materials and methods

- Presenting results: text, tables, and figures

- Writing the discussion and conclusions

- Preparing references

- Submitting to journals

- Editing: reviewer’s response

- Practical exercise: abstract preparation.

Coastal cities represent places of concentrated interaction between natural, social and physical processes and elements. While individual processes may be well known we are only beginning to understand the ways in which interaction between systems elements impacts on the sustainability of the whole. Coastal cities are at the frontline of mitigation and adaptation to climate change as well as being nodes in regional and global economic systems. These two pressures make important the temporality and phasing of systems interactions as well as its geography through scale and teleconnection effects.
This session will be used to explore the systems qualities and interactions of coastal cities and in particular explore what makes particular cities and their natural, social and physical components more or less resilient and sustainable. We will begin with some initial discussion to identify key attributes of sustainability and resilience and then consider how these might be indicated and tracked in cities. Participants will then be asked to work in small groups to conceptualise and design a checklist of qualities that can be applied across large and mega-cities to help track changes in risk and resilience over time with a particular emphasis on adaptation and mitigation actions and policy. These proposals will be discussed to produce a final group product. This will feed into the development of a monitoring tool to be used by LOICZ to track coastal adaptation in mega-cities and urban regions.
To prepare for this workshop participants are invited to read UN HABITAT’s Global Report on Human Settlements 2011: Cities and Climate Change.