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Sustain-COAST “Sustainable coastal groundwater management and pollution reduction through innovative governance in a changing climate” is an R&I project co-funded under the PRIMA 2018 programme section II, for a period of 3 years starting from June 2019. The Sustain-COAST consortium is led by the Technical University of Crete (TUC) and comprises a multidisciplinary team of seven partners from six countries. Sustain-COAST intends to develop a calibrated multi-criteria decision supporting system (DSS) and a web Geographical Information System platform accessible for water stakeholders and policymakers. The Communication and Dissemination plan (D6.2) gives an overview of the whole communication and dissemination activities to be carried out by Sustain-COAST consortium. It defines the dissemination objectives, key messages, target audiences, and specific objectives for each identified target group. In addition, D6.2 identifies the dissemination channels to be used, promotional materials, and the living labs and workshops. Furthermore, details on the financial and human resources and timing are provided. The Annex of the document provides more details on the stakeholders targeted by WP6, Dissemination and communication strategy. Finally, this plan is conducted in order to achieve the maximum impact and reach the relevant audiences. Therefore, all partners in Sustain-COAST project are expected to use it as a guideline for their dissemination activities throughout the duration of the project.

In the last five years, European research and innovation programmes have prioritised the development of online catalogues and tools (handbooks, models, etc.) to facilitate the implementation and monitoring of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). However, only a few catalogues and toolkits within European programmes are directly related to mainstreaming of NBS for food production (i.e., edible NBS). Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to present existing NBS tools through the eyes of productive urban landscapes. We reviewed 32 projects related to NBS and 50 tools were identified and characterised. Then, the six tools already available and provided indicators were further analysed in terms of their format and knowledge domains. Our main conclusion demonstrates that there is a lack of tools capable of supporting users for planning and implementing edible NBS calculating the food potential of a city and/or of individual edible NBS, including the needed resources for implementation and operation (water, nutrients, energy) and assessing their urban design value, environmental and socio-economic impacts. Moreover, when they do exist, there is a resistance to share the models and equations behind the tools to allow other projects to reuse or validate them, a fact which is contrary to the open science principles upheld by many public research agencies.

Sustain-COAST Consortium Agreement by and between 1. Technical University of Crete, Greece (TUC – Coordinator), on behalf of it the legal representative (Special Accounts of Research Funds, Building E4 Technical University Campus, Polytechneioupolis, Chania, Crete, Greece, 73100 VAT NUMBER EL 090087411 2. Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH – UFZ, Germany (UFZ - Participant) 3. UNITE TECHNIQUE DU SEMIDE GEIE, France (SEMIDE - Participant) established in place Sophie Laffitte, BP23, Sophia Antipolis 06901, France, registered in Grasse, France, with the number 419894951 (no VAT number) 4. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS - Participant), the head office of which is situated at 3, rue Michel-Ange, 75794 PARIS Cedex 16, SIRET (business location) No. 180089013 04033, NAF (principal activity) Code 7219.Z, Represented by its Chairman and CEO, Mr. Antoine PETIT, having delegated authority to sign this agreement to Mr. Patrice SOULLIE, Regional Delegate of the Alsace Region, 23, rue du Loess – BP20 – 67 037 STRASBOURG CEDEX - FRANCE CNRS is mandated from the “Universite de Strasbourg” (UNISTRA), having its registered office at 4, rue Blaise Pascal – CS90032, 67 081 Strasbourg Cedex Represented by its President, Mr. Michel DENEKEN. CNRS and UNISTRA are acting on their name and behalf the Joint Research Unit “Laboratoire d'Hydrologie et de Géochimie de Strasbourg” (LHYGES – UMR7517) managed by M. Phillippe ACKERER 5. University of Sassari, Italy (UNISS – Participant) 6. Water Research and Technologies Centre, Tunisia (CERTE – Participant) 7. Mersin University, Turkey (MEU – Participant)

International audience; Building a decentralised water information portal based on the aggregation of national water information systems is a promising solution in terms of flexibility, system sustainability (commitment from developing countries) and responsiveness to end-users needs. In this domain, the Euro-Mediterranean Information System on Know-How in the Water Sector (EMWIS) is bringing significant experience at organisational and technical levels. Today, Internet technologies and associated standards offer unique opportunities to build in such flexible integrated systems able to collect dynamically information from peer systems. International efforts should concentrate on communication protocols and information structures to efficiently use and share water information and build new knowledge. Water information is a cornerstone, necessary to build new cooperation initiatives, to monitor and assess projects achievements, to build efficient dialogue among stakeholders, to ensure public awareness and for planning and decision making. Its importance has widely been recognised at the highest political level. Web services are based on the extensible mark-up language (XML) also used to develop the so-called "semantic Web". EMWIS is exploring the development of a specific XML grammar (Water-ML) to insure the interoperability of water information systems developed in various part of the world. To complete this specific grammar and repository of water information services, water ontology is being developed. It make searches easier and more accurate for the end-user.

Water supply and reuse through non-conventional water resources can significantly decrease the stress on natural water resources. Decentralized systems can help not only to alleviate issues of water security in arid areas, but also to create a sustainable framework within a circular economy. Although these small-scale innovative technologies are able to achieve ready-to-use, high quality of recovered/treated water on-site, the loop cannot be closed in most cases due to legislative barriers. Similarly, the end-use of sewage sludge after treatment in decentralized systems still lacks specific regulations that limit its valorization. This work analyzes the current policy and legislation related to water supply, wastewater treatment, water reuse, and resource valorization within the context of decentralized state-of-the-art technologies applied in rural areas. The drawbacks in the current EU legislation that set barriers to close water-related loops in European countries are highlighted. A regulatory fitness check is applied to each type of loop to identify the key factors to accomplish the legislative compliance, and financing pathways are further evaluated at the EU level. As a possible solution, further development of an innovation deal approach is recommended to address the environmental, regulatory, and financial gaps in water management through an integrated framework, providing ad-hoc policies and prescriptions for the sustainable reuse of all water resources., This work was supported by the Innovation Action project "Demonstration of water loops with innovative regenerative business models for the Mediterranean region - HYDROUSA" which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 776643.

The linear pattern of production-consumption-disposal of cities around the world will continue to increase the emission of pollutants and stocks of waste, as well as to impact on the irreversible deterioration of non-renewable stocks of raw materials. A transition towards a circular pattern proposed by the concept of ‘Circular Cities’ is gaining momentum. As part of this urban transition, the emergent use of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) intends to shift public opinion and utilize technology to mitigate the urban environmental impact. In this paper, an analysis of the current research and practical investments for implementing NBS under the umbrella of Circular Cities is conducted. A combined appraisal of the latest literature and a survey of on-going and completed National-European research and development projects provides an overview of the current enabling tools, methodologies, and initiatives for public engagement. It also identifies and describes the links between facilitators and barriers with respect to existing policies and regulations, public awareness and engagement, and scientific and technological instruments. The paper concludes introducing the most promising methods, physical and digital technologies that may lead the way to Sustainable Circular Cities. The results of this research provide useful insight for citizens, scientists, practitioners, investors, policy makers, and strategists to channel efforts on switching from a linear to a circular thinking for the future of cities.

The term Balkans – encompassing a number of South-East Europe countries – represents one of Europe's peripheral areas with perhaps largest needs for development and economic reconstruction, and these are certainly to be achieved by means of ISTs. Different steps have been carried out in individual countries either within government/local community initiatives or as results of SME endeavors. In the case of Croatia, a handsome level of telematic services have already been developed forming a good basis for IS introduction. Especially Croatia's westernmost Istrian County started a number of IT projects in order to reengineer and make more efficient its administration, to provide interaction with the public and to establish an environment monitoring and management system; extensions to this system were to eventually form a regional information infrastructure.