Following the Coastal and Marine Management's 3-week course on ecology with Guðbjörg Ásta Ólafsdóttir from the University of Iceland's research centre in Bolungarvík, now the next 3-week course in Planning of Coastal and Marine Regions takes over. This will be taught by Morten Edvardsen, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway.

As ordinary as the title may appear, the course on ecology in coastal and marine management belies several diverse and interesting subjects such as invasive jellyfish, ballast water, sea otters in the Aleutian islands as a keystone species, coral reef structural complexity, hybridization or gene introgression for conservation purposes, topography of the seafloor, to name a few.

But from today, planning in the coastal zone is in the focus: Professor Morten Edvardsen has been teaching at the University Centre of the Westfjords already last year, and it is hugely supportive to know that many teachers from last year are willing to return to us in Isafjörður.

The course in Planning of coastal regions has many interfaces with the research project on Marine Spatial Planning, that was originated by the Westfjords' Municipalities' Association, the University Centre, and Eik Planning Agency. The course and the research project therefore back each other up.