Our first CCAT project meeting of 2020 CCAT was held in MaREI in Ringaskiddy in Cork on 4th & 5th March. The meeting was generously hosted by CCAT partner MaREI/UCC at their research centre for energy, climate and marine with partners from UCD, Fingal County Council, Cardiff University, Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum and the Port of Milford Haven attending.
The meeting was held on the 4th floor with beautiful views of Cobh and Spike Island. It consisted of a mix of workshops, interactive sessions and presentations. The first morning included a Logo 3D GeoDesign interactive session as well as testing a climate change card game developed by Pembrokshire Coastal Forum.
Being in MaREI we had access to expertise in the field of climate change and had presentations from Aoife Deane, MaREI’s Communications and Public Engagement Manager, James Fitton from Climate Ireland. After lunch we got the opportunity to visit Lir, National Ocean Test Facility and the wave basins and watch different types of waves being created.
Stephen Flood gave us an insight into serious games and their application in coastal climate change adaptation. We finished off day one by working in groups to test a number of climate GeoGames.
On the 2nd day of our meeting we had a number of workshops to progress the work of the CCAT project as well as a group discussion with David Murphy from UCC’s Computer Science Department on the use of augmented and virtual reality. These technologies could be used to educate people about the impact of climate change on their coastal communities. The final presentation was from Glen Smith from MaREI about his project on climate change resilience in Youghal, Co. Cork. Our next face-to-face meeting will be held in Wales in Sept. 2020.
