Researchers from Lancaster University are inviting people to help build a detailed picture of the North West coastline.
Starting this week, members of the public are being encouraged to use a new digital mapping tool to present their views, ideas and images to try and build a clear picture of the coastline.
The tool developed by the University’s ImaginationLancaster team, is part of the 'Our Future Coast' project.
Paul Cureton, project manager and researcher at ImaginationLancaster, said: "Coastal communities are at the front line of the climate challenge.
"It is not possible to protect the whole coast with hard engineering.
"Simply put, there isn’t enough money, and it is not a good long-term solution.
"So, we need to get really good at working with nature – using saltmarsh and sand dunes as a coastal defence."
The mapping platform forms part of the 'Our Future Coast' initiative, led by Wyre Borough Council and funded by taxpayers through the Environment Agency’s £150 million Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme.
The North West coastline is currently being studied as part of this project to explore how natural habitats such as saltmarshes and dunes can be enhanced to provide greater protection against climate change and rising sea levels.
According to researchers, these natural features can offer a sustainable alternative to hard engineering by serving as adaptable flood plains and basins.
The ImaginationLancaster team’s 'Map.Social – Morecambe Area Gaming Environment (MAGE)' tool invites residents to add notes, photographs, and descriptions to the digital map, highlighting areas of personal or environmental significance.
This community-generated data will be used to develop a digital 'sandbox' or 'playground testbed' for modelling future scenarios.
Dr Cureton said: "It’s really simple to use.
"Following public input into Map.Social, we want to develop MAGE, which is a ‘sandbox’, or ‘playground testbed’, for science communication, decision support and public engagement to help better understand the science of the coast and interact with various climate scenarios.
"This will enable people to ‘play’ with future scenarios involving the coastline to help them understand the science of the coast and interact with various climate scenarios.
"Think of it as a sort of digital chessboard on which you can move around the pieces, and it shows the impact with an array of likely scenarios and coastal models.
"It will enable us to communicate the changes to the public via a tabletop serious game."
The project will begin with community engagement events in Morecambe and Silverdale later this year.
These sessions will be designed to demonstrate the potential of the digital sandbox and gather public input.
The tools and models will then be expanded to cover other areas along the North West coast.
Dr Cureton said: "This is something I have wanted to do for ages.
"Coastal science is really interesting and exciting and I want to get people’s opinions in the most engaging way possible.
"This will potentially be a really rich open dataset of community values for the North West coastline."
His work is one of several contributions to the wider 'Our Future Coast' project, which also includes input from parish councils, wildlife groups, landowners, and other researchers.
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