Climate and coasts: transdisciplinary research practices for adaptation to climate change in italian coastal territories. – The contribution presents the first results of the Research Project of National Interest PNRR 2022 on the contrast to the effects of climate change on Italian coastal geosystems, entitled “From the Beaches to the Coasts: towards an Integrated Coast Protection”. The PRIN involves a group of researchers from different SSD (lawyers, geographers, urban economists and statisticians) and Italian universities (Bocconi, Cassino, Iuav, Roma Tre, Urbino). The first results that will be illustrated in the article concern the design of collaborative research practices and transdisciplinary open science in the field of integrated coastal zone management and the Atlas of sustainability and integrated coastal management in Italy.

Integral Land Reclamation and Climate Transition: A Mesological Perspective on the ‘Macchina della Terra’. – This contribution examines integral reclamation in the Gulf of Oristano, Sardinia, employing Berque's concepts of ecumene and mesology alongside geographical insights. Lucio Gambi’s metaphor of reclamation as a “macchina della terra” serves as a foundational idea, while Federica Cavallo highlights modern territorial constructs that emerge from contrasts such as water vs. earth and modern vs. wild. On the centenary of the Santa Chiara dam’s inauguration, which transformed Oristano’s coastal wetlands, the region now faces the challenges of climate change. The interplay between land and local communities reveals both contradictions and potential alliances in ecological resilience, particularly in discussions surrounding Nitrate Vulnerable Zones. A century of human-environment interactions has reshaped these areas into vital agro-food production hubs, underscoring the need for a mesological perspective on this evolution.

Conflicts over the land-use of the Gaeta coastal zone (southern Lazio, Italy). – The aim of this contribution is to highlight the conflicts that have arisen over the centuries on Gaeta coastal zone in southern Lazio. The conformation of the Gulf, in which it faces, has favoured its vocation of mooring and therefore of maritime activities since ancient times. However, its defence capacity soon made it impregnable to attack by sea, making it a military fortress, so they interrupted its reputation as a commercial port and refuge for vessel. Fortunately, just outside the fortress, a fishing activity and a shipbuilding industry continued to be. These activities relaunched Gaeta until after the Second World War, and still survive today waiting for a new revival. The destruction of the historic walls also rehabilitated that part of the city that was enclosed there, but in it there are also the NATO fleet support and the military vessels controlling and safeguarding the coast of the entire gulf. Meanwhile, in the last decades, Gaeta has regained the role that had belonged since Roman times to a holiday resort. In the summer months, a large number of tourists pour out, especially on the different beaches that are developed on the coast just off the gulf. Over time, bathing, refreshment and accommodation services have been provided to them, threatening valuable coastal habitats, protected by both the Region and the 2000 Nature Network. This relationship between nature and man can be balanced only if the conditions of co-existence are known and respected. Similarly, it can be said for the maritime activities that develop in the Gulf of Gaeta.

The management of marine and coastal protected areas in Tunisia. – This contribution will examine the marine environment protection policies which have resulted from the international to endeavours undertaken by Tunisia in the last decade of the twentieth century, thus leading to the recovery of coastal wetlands, the establishment of sensitive coastal zones and Marine and Coastal Protected Areas (AMCP). In particular, when focusing on the latter, it was highlighted that, although specific legislation was issued (2009) following the acknowledgement of international guidelines on a participated management of such areas, the delay with which the implementing decrees (2014) were enacted and the strong existing contradictions within a country that only in recent years has initiated a process of territorial decentralization - a fundamental step for the democratization of the country - have hindered the civil society participation in the management of AMCPs.