Abstract:

The main objective of this work is to stimulate the development of work skills in students of the last year of the Marine Sciences Degree (4th), within the framework of a coastal management project. This project as a whole allows students to relate the theoretical and practical contents of three concurrent subjects in a transversal activity, whose main objective is to provide them with the necessary tools to make accurate decisions based on environmental protection and the correct use of planning instruments, current legislation and the tools used today in the labor market.

The proposal consists of assessing the feasibility of a marine research center located on the Valencian coast. In the subject of Coastal Planning and Management, students will analyze the planning instruments currently in force on the coast, both at international, national and regional level. In addition, sectorial legislations and environmentally protected areas will be taken into account. These instruments of territorial and environmental protection will be worked through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), whose handling the students already know through previous subjects of the degree, which, together with the analysis of the technical documents that regulate them (published in official sources), allow the student to know the limitations in each point of the territory, and therefore, the feasibility of the project of installation of a marine research center in a given space.

On the other hand, in the subject of Marine Pollution, the potential impact that the wastewater generated in such a marine research center would have is analyzed. Students must make an estimate of the water flow that will be generated, as well as the content of the different pollutants in the waste generated. Subsequently, through the use of specific software (CORMIX), used by professionals from environmental consulting firms, they must evaluate the effect/impact that the wastewater would generate in the face of different discharge proposals. After analyzing the different alternatives, they will choose to discharge into the sea through a submarine outfall, i.e., the alternative that minimizes the impact that would be generated on the coast and the immediate marine environment.

Finally, in the subject of Legislation and Economics, students analyze in depth the legislative texts with special emphasis on the areas occupied by the Inland Waters, the Territorial Sea (12 nautical miles) and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (200 nautical miles), as well as the maritime law that regulates in our country each of these maritime waters. The students must know the characteristics of each one of them, and the legislation that regulates them, in order to evaluate the possibility of discharging the water produced by the center. From the economic point of view, the students will propose the design of the organizational structure of the marine research center, including the organization chart and the functions of the different areas, as well as the definition of the competence profile of the different job positions.

In short, this is a Project Based Learning (PBL) methodology and, therefore, focused on the labor market, which allows students to strengthen their job skills at all levels

Keywords:

Project-Based Learning, Degree in Marine Sciences, Coastal management, Environment, Business.