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In order to provide a collaborative platform to meet the challenges, including unregulated coastal urbanization and population migration, pollution from land-and sea-based activities, depletion of freshwater and marine resources, habitats degradation and biodiversity loss, inadequate response to sea-level rise, and increase of natural and man-made disasters, Xiamen International Forum for Coastal Cities 2005 has been successfully concluded by adopting “Xiamen Declaration on Coastal Cities--Global Cooperation for Sustainable Development”. The conduct of this forum is considered an important first step towards the establishment of a stronger alliance of coastal cities worldwide.
To concretize the spirit of global cooperation among coastal cities manifested in Xiamen Declaration and promote its implementation, Xiamen Municipal Government is co-organizing Xiamen International Forum for Coastal Cities 2006 (XIFCC 2006), jointly with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), State Oceanic Administration People’s Republic of China (SOA), Regional Programme on Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) with the theme of “Water Resource Sustainability in Coastal Cities”, and scheduled on 12～13 October 2006. In the year of next, the Organizing Committee of XIFCC decided to promote the Xiamen International Forum for Coastal Cities to the World Ocean Week in Xiamen (WOW) which covers diverse activities including forums, workshops, seminars, exhibitions and many kinds of social events, the WOW will be organized annually and starts at the first Friday in November.
As a platform for regional cooperation as well as for connecting marine and social science, technology, education, public awareness in making policies, management decisions and actions to achieve sustainable use of coastal and marine resources and for achieving sustainable development of the oceans, the World Ocean Week in Xiamen was born and commits itself to providing a working platform for international cooperation and communication among the governments of coastal cities, national agencies, experts in marine science & technology, members of international and inter-governmental organizations and of relevant marine industries, enterprises and institutions. WOW intends to facilitate the healthy development of marine industries and to promote sustainable utilization of marine resources, publicizes the marine-related culture festivals, and involves the participation of the public and raise their awareness of marine environmental protection.
The Coastal and Ocean Management Institute (COMI), Xiamen University has engaged in the organization of XIFCC2006 and collaborated the main forum of WOW in the year of 2007 and 2008. With the successful organizing experiences in three years, COMI was assigned to undertake the responsibility of organizing the Scientific Forum, which was the key forum of WOW2009 with the theme of Watershed and Estuary Management. The Scientific Forum has gathered leading experts in this field and achieved a high reputation from the Organizing Committee of WOW and all the experts and participants of the activity.
COMI organized the key forum of WOW2009 with the theme of Watershed and Estuary Management | 
