Vindicating the biological and socioeconomic importance of coastal lagoons and transitional waters

The European Congress on Coastal Lagoons celebrates this year 2018 its fifteen years of existence. Its first edition, in November 2003 in Ferrara (Italy), under the slogan "The Influence of River Basin-Coastal Zone Interactions", opened a series of actions and opportunities that have been consolidated in the biannual celebration of this meeting, the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Federation on Coastal Lagoons and the reinforce of national networks as Lagunet. In addition, numerous collaborations have been established in projects, publications and exchanges that, without a doubt, are having impact in a solid and important advance in the study of these transitional ecosystems. Coastal lagoons are ecosystems of great biological interest, transcending the regional socioeconomic scope in which they are included (Pérez-Ruzafa et al., 2011a). This idea, that is increasingly clear in the field of the management and sustainability of these emblematic systems, presided over the main topic of the seventh edition of the aforementioned symposium, held in Murcia (Spain) in March 2016, under the slogan "Vindicating the biological and socioeconomic importance of transitional waters".