While coastal zones in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean are undoubtedly a competitive advantage for local communities, they are facing ever-increasing natural and anthropogenic pressures that generate poor environmental conditions and can lead to their demise. Based on this fact, Municipalities, Universities and NGOs from Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Albania have formed a partnership coordinated by the Municipality of Paggaio to jointly address in a comprehensive and effective manner this challenge, through the implementation of the HERMES project. co-financed by the European Union. The HERMES project is an initiative aimed at developing, implementing and disseminating a common operational planning framework capable of supporting the assimilation and exploitation of advanced approaches and techniques, with solid references to modern Environmental Engineering, at local scale. A key milestone of the HERMES project is the Virtual International Conference to be held 18-19 June. "The conference" notes Filippos Anastasiadis, Mayor of Paggaio, "will be an opportunity to discuss and exchange views and experiences between local government officials, scientists, active citizens and, of course, local civil servants from all participating countries. The issues of coastal erosion and climate change will be particularly relevant in the coming years and local communities should be well prepared. " The conference will be supported and enriched with presentations by members of the “Design and Management of Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Works” (DMPCO)network, which includes the National Technical University of Athens(NTUA) and Departments of Civil Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and of the University of Patras. "Coastal erosion," says Vasiliki Tsoukala, Associate Professor at the NTUA, and a Keynote Speaker at the Hermes Conference, "is a phenomenon that is closely linked to both natural processes and human activity, so this meeting is a great opportunity to inform local communities on the state of the art in the field and to highlight the maturity and value of current practices related to coastal zone management. " According to the Scientific Coordinator of the HERMES project and Professor of Democritus University of Thrace, Georgios Sylaios, the topics to be developed at the conference include: • Coastal erosion: Current state, trends and perspectives • Policies and Tools supporting the adaptation and resilience of Coastal Municipalities to Coastal Erosion and Sea Level Rise • ICZM Protocol Implementation by Municipal and Regional Authorities • Scientific Tools to Monitor Coastal Zone Processes • Engineering Solutions Tackling Coastal Zone Challenges • Touristic Development under Coastal Erosion and Climate Change Risks • Financial Instruments related to Coastal Zone Management The working language of the Conference is English and abstracts can be submitted to hermes.bmp@gmail.com, until 10 June 2020. Abstract template is available upon request .