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Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas
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Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Coastal Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2023) | Viewed by 15695

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Dimitra Kitsiou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Marine Sciences, School of the Environment, University of the Aegean, Lesvos, Greece
Interests: coastal environmental change; coastal physico-chemical processes; sea water quality; coastal management; marine spatial planning; geoinformatics; coastal remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The importance of coastal areas is well known since they provide resources and homes to humans and are among the most productive areas in the world, where a variety of ecosystems meet. Coastal ecosystems provide not only habitat for a wide range of marine plants and animals but numerous ecosystem services; their role in global climate is also critical.

However, continuous pressure on coastal and marine ecosystems due to the rapid growth of population density, the excessive exploitation of natural resources, as well as natural hazards and climate change is resulting in their degradation, with a considerable impact on coastal biodiversity and various economic aspects. In this framework, there is a need for appropriate tools and decision-support systems (DSSs) to analyze the vulnerability of coastal areas as well as the risks from potential threats and their impact. It is also necessary to identify and evaluate possible management options and scenarios in order to support policy makers in adopting robust decisions for sustainable coastal management and development.

In this Special Issue, we encourage the submission of papers related to the design and development of computerized information systems and tools that support decision-making activities in coastal areas using new technologies, data from various sources (i.e., satellites, UAVs, cruises), spatial databases, mapping and visualization techniques, spatial analysis methods, and/or appropriate modeling techniques.

Dr. Dimitra Kitsiou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Marine pollution/eutrophication
  • Coastal ecosystems
  • Coastal erosion
  • Natural hazards
  • Modelling
  • Watersheds
  • Spatial analysis methods / GIS
  • Climate change
  • Integrated coastal management
  • Marine spatial planning

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 23409 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Reliability of a New One-Line Model for Predicting Shoreline Evolution with Impoundment Field Experiment Data
by Antonio Francone and David J. Simmonds
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(5), 1037; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11051037 - 12 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1033
Abstract
The advancement of knowledge in the field of coastal morphodynamics is currently highly relevant, as it provides valuable insights into the complex and dynamic nature of coastal systems and helps coastal engineers and researchers to better understand and manage the risks associated with [...] Read more.
The advancement of knowledge in the field of coastal morphodynamics is currently highly relevant, as it provides valuable insights into the complex and dynamic nature of coastal systems and helps coastal engineers and researchers to better understand and manage the risks associated with coastal hazards. Managing and protecting coastal areas requires accurate measurements and the availability of reliable numerical models for predicting shoreline evolution. The present study focuses on verifying the reliability of a recent one-line model: the General Shoreline beach (GSb) model. The numerical simulations were performed using wave data observed by the Acoustic Wave and Current profiler and the Channel Coast Observatory buoy. The numerical results were compared with high-resolution shoreline data collected from an ARGUS monitoring station during the impoundment experiment conducted in Milford-on-Sea, UK. The numerical results demonstrated that the GSb model accurately predicts shoreline evolution, particularly for mixed beaches. The findings of the present study also show the effectiveness of the GSb online numerical model in predicting day-to-day changes in shoreline dynamics caused by wave attack. The high-resolution dataset of the ARGUS observations combined with wave data collected during the field experiment could be valuable resources for coastal researchers to further evaluate and improve numerical models of coastal morphodynamics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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26 pages, 14264 KiB  
Article
An Integrated Monitoring System for Coastal and Riparian Areas Based on Remote Sensing and Machine Learning
by Anastasios Tzepkenlis, Nikos Grammalidis, Christos Kontopoulos, Vasiliki Charalampopoulou, Dimitra Kitsiou, Zoi Pataki, Anastasia Patera and Theodoros Nitis
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(9), 1322; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10091322 - 18 Sep 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2108
Abstract
Nowadays, coastal areas are exposed to multiple hazards of increasing severity, such as coastal floods, erosion, subsidence due to a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors, including climate change and urbanisation. In order to cope with these challenges, new remote sensing monitoring solutions [...] Read more.
Nowadays, coastal areas are exposed to multiple hazards of increasing severity, such as coastal floods, erosion, subsidence due to a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors, including climate change and urbanisation. In order to cope with these challenges, new remote sensing monitoring solutions are required that are based on knowledge extraction and state of the art machine learning solutions that provide insights into the related physical mechanisms and allow the creation of innovative Decision Support Tools for managing authorities. In this paper, a novel user-friendly monitoring system is presented, based on state-of-the-art remote sensing and machine learning approaches. It uses processes for collecting and analysing data from various heterogeneous sources (satellite, in-situ, and other auxiliary data) for monitoring land cover and land use changes, coastline changes soil erosion, land deformations, and sea/ground water level. A rule-based Decision Support System (DSS) will be developed to evaluate changes over time and create alerts when needed. Finally, a WebGIS interface allows end-users to access and visualize information from the system. Experimental results deriving from various datasets are provided to assess the performance of the proposed system, which is implemented within the EPIPELAGIC bilateral Greece-China project. The system is currently being installed in the Greek case study area, namely Thermaikos Gulf in Thessaloniki, Greece. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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26 pages, 10295 KiB  
Article
An Improved Framework of Marine Major Function-Oriented Zoning in Advancing Ecosystem-Based Management
by Yanhong Lin, Faming Huang, Yang Zhang, Qi Wang, Jinliang Huang, Qiuming Chen and Xiongzhi Xue
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(5), 684; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10050684 - 17 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1759
Abstract
Planning and zoning of marine areas is a common practice worldwide. In China, marine major function-oriented zoning (MMFOZ) is an effective geographical method for ensuring sustainable marine resource and ecosystems development; however, ecosystem-based management (EBM) has neither been considered in MMFOZ research nor [...] Read more.
Planning and zoning of marine areas is a common practice worldwide. In China, marine major function-oriented zoning (MMFOZ) is an effective geographical method for ensuring sustainable marine resource and ecosystems development; however, ecosystem-based management (EBM) has neither been considered in MMFOZ research nor in practice. Thus, the current MMFOZ evaluation system does not consider integration between the terrestrial and marine components, and the administrative boundaries are adopted as those of research areas and spatial zoning units. Here, an improved MMFOZ framework is presented through an ecosystem-based delimitation of the research area and subregions and a novel indicator system integrating land- and sea-based impacts, to assess and discriminate MMFOZ. A bay ecosystem and nearby land catchment units were selected as the research object. The results revealed two marine optimized development zones, one marine significant development zone, and six marine restricted development zones were divided, with areas of 358.11 km2 (24.63% of the total zoning area), 605.95 km2 (41.69%), and 489.54 km2 (33.68%), respectively. The improved MMFOZ framework coupled with EBM effectively addressed the limitations of marine spatial planning (MSP), while providing a new practical tool for a novel paradigm of sea governance based on an EBM–MSP coupling framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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21 pages, 1211 KiB  
Article
Joined Efficiency and Productivity Evaluation of Tunisian Commercial Seaports Using DEA-Based Approaches
by Mohsen Ben Mabrouk, Manel Elmsalmi, Awad M. Aljuaid, Wafik Hachicha and Sami Hammami
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(5), 626; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10050626 - 04 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2109
Abstract
Seaports are important infrastructures to support international trade. Therefore, it is vital that port efficiency and productivity are continuously evaluated and improved. In this context, the objective of this article is to evaluate both the technical efficiency and the change in productivity of [...] Read more.
Seaports are important infrastructures to support international trade. Therefore, it is vital that port efficiency and productivity are continuously evaluated and improved. In this context, the objective of this article is to evaluate both the technical efficiency and the change in productivity of the six most important Tunisian commercial seaports, Bizerte, Rades, Sousse, Sfax, Gabes, and Zarzis, over a period of twelve years from 2005 to 2016. To achieve this objective, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is applied. The first output-oriented DEA application is about efficiency evaluation, which, for each seaport, allows the estimation of overall technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. The second application concerns the evolution of the productivity of Tunisian seaports during the study period using the Malmquist DEA-based productivity index. The productivity analysis is performed according to the year (period) and according to each studied seaport. The first output-oriented DEA method provides that the overall technical efficiency in the above-mentioned ports is 69.4% while the pure technical efficiency is 83.3%. Furthermore, the average scale efficiency is about 82.6%, which implies that the decreasing type of returns to scale dominates in this study. Regarding the second DEA application for productivity evolution, the obtained results from the data analysis revealed that it fell by 6.7%, mainly due to the degradation of the technological change (8.3%). The results obtained provide useful basic criteria for establishing efficiency improvement strategies for each studied seaport. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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15 pages, 2763 KiB  
Article
Prediction of Aerosol Extinction Coefficient in Coastal Areas of South China Based on Attention-BiLSTM
by Zhou Ye, Shengcheng Cui, Zhi Qiao, Zihan Zhang, Wenyue Zhu, Xuebin Li and Xianmei Qian
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(4), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10040545 - 15 Apr 2022
Viewed by 1668
Abstract
The aerosol extinction coefficient (AEC) characterises the attenuation of the light propagating in a turbid medium with suspended particles. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out AEC prediction research using state-of-art neural network (NN) methods. The attention mechanism (AM) has become [...] Read more.
The aerosol extinction coefficient (AEC) characterises the attenuation of the light propagating in a turbid medium with suspended particles. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out AEC prediction research using state-of-art neural network (NN) methods. The attention mechanism (AM) has become an indispensable part of NNs that focuses on input weight assignment. Traditional AM is used in time steps to help generate the outputs. To select important features of meteorological parameters (MP) that are helpful for forecasting, in this study, we apply AM to features instead of time steps. Then we propose a bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) NN based on AM to predict the AEC. The proposed method can remember information twice (i.e., forward and backward), which can provide more context for AEC forecasting. Finally, an in situ measured MP dataset is applied in the proposed model, which presents Maoming coastal area’s atmospheric conditions in November 2020. The experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper has higher accuracy compared with traditional NN, providing a novel solution to the AEC prediction problem for the current studies of marine aerosol. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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16 pages, 1556 KiB  
Article
Development of a webGIS Application to Assess Conflicting Activities in the Framework of Marine Spatial Planning
by Anastasia Patera, Zoi Pataki and Dimitra Kitsiou
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(3), 389; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030389 - 08 Mar 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3500
Abstract
Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been established as the appropriate policy framework to study and resolve conflicts that arise among various activities. A pre-requisite for the successful implementation of MSP is the availability of efficient tools to support decision-makers and enhance stakeholders’ engagement. [...] Read more.
Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been established as the appropriate policy framework to study and resolve conflicts that arise among various activities. A pre-requisite for the successful implementation of MSP is the availability of efficient tools to support decision-makers and enhance stakeholders’ engagement. In this paper, a webGIS application is proposed that is able to assess the intensity of conflicts among marine activities; the area of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea was used as a case study. The webGIS application allows the visualization of existing activities, the delineation of conflicting activities, the detection of areas where multiple conflicts co-exist, and the delineation of areas of conflicts based on specific criteria. The webGIS application is available via a user-friendly interface as well as allowing interaction with users by providing them the opportunity to comment on the results and/or exchange ideas with other users of various groups; therefore, the participatory process, a creative stage in MSP, is further supported. The usefulness of such tools in coastal and marine planning and the decision-making process are further discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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Review

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27 pages, 666 KiB  
Review
Critique on Ecological Methodologies Used in Water Quality Studies and Coastal Management: A Review
by Michael Karydis
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(5), 701; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10050701 - 20 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1888
Abstract
The subject of ecology is the understanding of the relations among living organisms and their interactions with the abiotic environment. The need to quantify ecological phenomena requires the development of mathematical tools, including ecological indices, statistical procedures and simulation models. Some of these [...] Read more.
The subject of ecology is the understanding of the relations among living organisms and their interactions with the abiotic environment. The need to quantify ecological phenomena requires the development of mathematical tools, including ecological indices, statistical procedures and simulation models. Some of these tools have been found to be convenient by many scientists and policy makers in related scientific disciplines to express marine pollution levels, marine water quality and future trends; they have, therefore, been adopted in coastal management methodologies and practices. In the present work, a number of ecological tools are reviewed regarding their relevance to supporting water quality studies, as well as their suitability to be included in the toolkit of coastal management practices. Their problems and weaknesses, together with the science–policy misconnection, are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Tools in Coastal Areas)
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