Nicole Malinconico

I am a passionate marine biologist with multiple interests, I like to involve art and/or technology for nature-based solutions. I have a degree in biology and a master's degree in Oceanography. My research career began with ichthyoplankton ecology on islands, going through the census and behaviour of reef fish until I finally settled in the area of coastal management. I enjoy getting involved with academic extension activities, and I have experience with fishing communities. I was also the coordinator of a Women in Science project. Today I am doing my doctorate at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and I am a visiting PhD student at UNSW with Professor Mariana Mayer and Hedley Grantham. My research is on Marine Spatial Planning and beach management, developing a more cost-effective strategy for prioritizing coastal conservation areas.

Project: Marine Spatial Planning and beach management: applying the Systematic Conservation Planning to land-sea interaction ecosystems

Project description: 

There are still large gaps in the science regarding the application of the ecosystem approach to beach management due to our limited understanding of the dynamics of human uses of marine ecosystems and their cumulative impacts, the effectiveness of management and governance systems, and how to conduct assessments fully integrated into the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the marine system. In the beach environment, this management becomes even more difficult due to the linear and fragmented nature of this ecosystem , the scarcity of appropriate data for management, and by the extent and speed of its degradation. Therefore, this work aims to develop a marine spatial planning (PEM) strategy on beaches, in an ecosystem-based management (GBE) context to evaluate their socio-ecological systems (SSE). Thus, social and ecological knowledge will be integrated from a spatial perspective of a multiple scenario model (Marxan) to propose approaches for planning beach ecosystems, to support decision making.