Throughout July, a mobile community engagement initiative collected first-hand proposals from local residents and coastal users on the innovative Tidal Pool-Reef system.
The contributions, questions and suggestions gathered during this active listening campaign will now be analysed to provide direct feedback to the local community.
Brussels, 3 August 2026 – The European project LIFE COSTAdapta has concluded its community engagement campaign carried out throughout July in northern Gran Canaria. Through a mobile outreach initiative, the project team met directly with residents and coastal users to explain the project’s technical progress in an accessible way and, above all, to listen to the community’s views first-hand.
The initiative focused on two key locations along the coastline of Santa María de Guía: the neighbourhood of San Felipe and the El Circo surf break, one of the main gathering points for the local surfing community. Through information panels installed on-site, visitors were able to learn about the design of the innovative Tidal Pool-Reef system. Inspired by the traditional intertidal tidal pools of the Canary Islands, this nature-based solution aims to protect the coastline against sea level rise while combining coastal defence with the ecological restoration of marine flora and fauna.
Community participation and active listening
Beyond providing information, the main objective of the mobile outreach initiative was to give the local community a voice through a fully inclusive participation process. The campaign gathered questions, suggestions and feedback from residents, surfers and visitors who regularly use this stretch of coastline.
All the information, concerns and proposals collected during the campaign are currently being analysed by the LIFE COSTAdapta technical team. The results will be used to prepare detailed responses, which will soon be shared directly with the local community. The project consortium emphasises that co-designing adaptation measures with local stakeholders is essential to ensuring that coastal adaptation solutions are both sustainable and respectful of the area’s traditional coastal uses.
About the project
LIFE COSTAdapta has a total budget of €3,337,563, of which €2,002,538 is co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme. The project has a duration of seven years and is coordinated by the Gran Canaria Island Energy Council (Consejo Insular de la Energía de Gran Canaria – CIEGC), part of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria.
The project consortium brings together a multidisciplinary team comprising CIEGC, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), the University of Cantabria (UC), INGECID, RALEY Estudios Costeros S.C.P., ECOncrete AQUA, the Canary Islands Foundation for Recycling and Sustainable Development (Canarias Recicla – FCR), and the Finnova Foundation. For more information, visit: https://costadapta.energiagrancanaria.com/