Syscolag: A transdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach towards integrated coastal area management. An experiment in Languedoc-Roussillon (France)

The SYSCOLAG programme is a pilot operation at national level for experimenting with a knowledge-pooling system applied to the field of integrated coastal area management (ICAM). SYSCOLAG aims to constitute an interface between 'knowledge' and the users of knowledge' on questions related to the conservation and the development of the coastal zone of the Languedoc-Roussillon. To that end, SYSCOLAG offers both a transdisciplinary approach associating life sciences, earth sciences, social and informatic sciences and multistakeholders approach (associating scientists, decision-makers, professional users of the sea, environmental protection associations, and the general public) to integrated management of the coastal zone of the Languedoc-Roussillon. The system developed in this programme is based on know-how (particularly in integrated expertise and information systems) and an array of innovative information processing tools dedicated to a public of experts and for the general public. To date, SYSCOLAG has provided a basis for federating the multidisciplinary teams from various organisations concerned by issues related to this coastal zone. In addition, it has contributed to the improvement of communication between the scientific community and other coastal zone stakeholders, and in particular, with the local management organisations.