Human-induced changes to river loads of nutrients and sediments pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems. Ongoing land-use change can further increase these loads, and amplify the impacts of land-based threats on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Consequently, there is a need to assess these threats and prioritise actions to mitigate their impacts. A key question regarding prioritisation is w...

Coastal areas in England and Wales are at greater risk of flooding and erosion than their landward equivalents. To address these hazards, over the last 20 years, a process to develop long-term Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) has been developed (Leafe et al., 1998; Cooper et al., 2002; DEFRA, 2006). The spatial boundary of SMPs is defined by coastal cell and sub-cell boundaries (of order 10 2 ...

A crawling Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) has been developed for scientific activities within coastal and estuarine regions of the ocean for multiple research activities such as environmental impact assessment and integrated coastal zone management. The Modular Amphibious Research Crawler (MARC-1) ROV is designed to operate underwater and in the surfzone to a depth of five meters. The vehicle ...

Relationships and variability of bio-optical properties in coastal waters are investigated. Optical proxies indicate that these coastal waters are optically complex and highly variable and are categorized as follows: (1) relatively clear and dominated by high index of refraction, biogenic particles, (2) more turbid, consisting of mostly inorganic particles and little phytoplankton, (3) extremel...

China’s 18,000-kilometer coastline encompasses a region of great economic importance to the country, accounting for about 56 percent of its GDP (Wang, 1992). Swelling populations and an unbroken trend of urbanization throughout the east coast increasingly challenges the conservation of China’s vast coastal zone. While the Chinese government has begun to recognize the crucial role the ocean’s li...

Launch of the Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union in 2007 served as important factor that stimulates consolidation of coastal and marine information to support policy implementation. Policy’s action plan provides approaches for maritime governance, research and planning relevant to information. In particular, roadmap for maritime spatial planning stimulates development of coastal ...

Protecting coastal communities has become increasingly important as their populations grow, resulting in increased demand for engineered shore protection and hardening of over 50% of many urban shorelines. Shoreline hardening is recognized to reduce ecosystem services that coastal populations rely on, but the amount of hardened coastline continues to grow in many ecologically important coastal ...

Coastal areas provide nesting habitat for marine turtles that is critical for the persistence of their populations. However, many coastal areas are highly affected by coastal development, which affects the reproductive success of marine turtles. Knowing the extent to which nesting areas are exposed to these threats is essential to guide management initiatives. This information is particularly i...

This contribution deals with the role of geographical information in participatory research concerning coastal zones and its potential to bridge the gap between research and coastal zone management. The study aims at modeling the interactions between human activities in a maritime basin. A dynamic GIS is used as a tool to facilitate the exchange of points of view and to share knowledge. Geograp...