Sunset over the main canal in Aveiro, with the flat bottomed boats that used to gather seaweed for fertilizer or ship goods now used for tours.
My scenario team for the Global Multi-Actor Lab on day 2 of REWRITE
The end of October I visited lovely Aveiro, Portugal, as part of the Advisory Board/Stakeholder Steering Committee of the EU REWRITE project. As a member of the Advisory Board/Stakeholder Steering Committee I get invited to see what the team is doing and provide feedback, but this time we also got to be research participants ourselves. REWRITE features a series of Global and Local Multi-Actor Labs (MALs) that will help explore scenarios for intertidal soft sediment futures in Europe. My team (see below) comprised folks from Ireland (Pat), Portugal (Bruno) and Germany (Franz) and we had a great time envisioning community-led coastal restoration.
Looking over a salt pan (salinas), toward the University of Aveiro, with flamingos.
Exploring Aveiro and surrounds in the downtime (always sunset, it seemed) it was particularly special to visit salinas for the first time (salt pans), now largely abandoned and sites of restoration or other development such as oyster farming, but still producing some salt for educational and tourism. I was especially excited to see flamingos prowling around the pans. My tour guide on one of the canal tours earlier in the week said that climate change had driven them north. Weather turned sour at the end of the trip but I still had a great time enjoying (indoor) Lisbon, especially the National Tile Museum and its display on the brilliant Querubim Lapa.
Danika and I in driving rain, after the REWRITE meeting in Lisbon.
