Coasts worldwide face a great variety of environmental impacts as well as increased anthropogenic pressures of coastal zone urbanization and rapid population growth. Over the last decade coastal erosion has emerged as a widespread problem that causes shoreline retreat and irreversible land losses. The attempts of managers and other stakeholders to cope with erosion using different types of hard engineering methods may often aggravate this problem, damaging natural landscape and coastal ecosystems in unexpected and unpredicted ways. Other negative impacts of human activities on littoral environments are chronic and punctual pollution of beach and coastal sediments with associated health risks for human beings. Chronic pollution is often observed in coastal areas close to factories, industries and human settlements - because of waste water discharges, punctual contamination is often linked to beach oiling.
The session gives priority to the subjects of coastal geomorphology: evolution of coastal landforms, coastline alterations and various associated processes in the coastal zone, e.g. waves and sediment drift, which shape coastal features and cause morphological changes. Contributions to this session will focus on the mechanisms responsible for coastal erosion and shoreline behaviour (advance or retreat) and will address the many natural and human factors involved. The topics may include work on predictions of shoreline change and discussions on the effects of human activities and their continuing contribution to coastal changes. The session will also cover submissions on coastal vulnerability to the combined effects of natural and human-related hazards, any type of coastal and environmental sensitivity classifications, and risk assessments.
Studies related to Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), including Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) are also welcome. For any MSP and ICM, it is essential to consider the dynamics across the land-sea interface, i.e. the Land-Sea Interactions (LSI) that involve both natural processes and the impact of human activities.

Next year, if successful, the EGU GM Session: “Coastal zone geomorphologic interactions: natural versus human-induced driving factors” will celebrate 10 Years of continuous organisation and conduction in Vienna, and we encourage the coastal community to help make the session even more successful than in the past years.

This session is sponsored by the Commission on Coastal Systems (CCS) of the International Geographical Union (www.igu-ccs.org).