Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, directly threatening critical port infrastructure and the stability of global supply chains. Effective adaptation planning requires systematic tools capable of identifying the most critical and climate-vulnerable infrastructure elements within port systems. The present study develops an integrated framework that jointly evaluates the operational criticality and climate vulnerability of port infrastructure, supporting decision-making in port adaptation planning. Criticality is assessed using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), applying the SMARTER approach with the Rank Order Centroid (ROC) technique for criteria weighting, considering five impact dimensions related to safety, operational continuity, as well as economic, social and environmental impacts. Vulnerability is evaluated based on the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of each infrastructure element to relevant climate hazards. The framework was applied to the ports of Seville, Dunkirk and Lisbon. The results identify energy infrastructure and emergency and resilience systems as the most critical assets across all three ports. Vulnerability varies among the case studies depending on local climatic conditions and the operational characteristics of the infrastructure. In Seville, the most vulnerable infrastructures are utilities and drainage systems, mainly due to flooding and sea-level rise. In Lisbon, access infrastructure and drainage systems show increased vulnerability to flooding and storm events, while in Dunkirk the highest vulnerability is observed in environmental protection systems. Overall, the proposed methodology enables the prioritization of port assets that require immediate adaptation interventions, thereby providing a comprehensive decision-support tool for port authorities.
Despite the widespread recognition of mangroves as multifunctional social–-ecological systems, spatially explicit assessments that integrate ecosystem service (ES) identification, prioritization, and zoning remain limited, particularly in arid and semi-arid coastal regions. In this study, we developed and applied an integrated spatial framework to identify, map, weight, and prioritize potential ES supply/capacity across 19 mangrove habitats along the southern coasts of Iran. The framework combined proxy-based ES identification, GIS- and InVEST-based spatial mapping, Analytic Network Process (ANP) weighting, and expert rapid assessment. A total of 521 ES occurrences were identified across the study area, encompassing provisioning (18.4%), regulating (17.5%), supporting (32.4%), and cultural services (31.7%). ES richness varied among habitats, with the highest richness observed in the Qeshm Coast habitat (39 services) and the lowest richness in the Bordekhon habitat (18 services). Supporting services had the highest global priority weight (0.351), followed by cultural, provisioning, and regulating services. Spatial zoning identified approximately 1.23 million ha of mangrove-related landscape representing potential ES supply/capacity, including 266,420 ha associated with provisioning services, 223,588 ha with regulating services, 423,557 ha with supporting services, and 311,757 ha with cultural services. Within the supporting-service zone, 214,065 ha were classified as high priority, representing 50.5% of its total area. These results show that supporting services were both the most highly weighted and the most spatially dominant ES category across Iran's mangrove landscapes. Beyond the national context, the study presents a transferable framework for integrating ES richness, relative importance, and spatial prioritization in mangrove ecosystems. This framework can support ecosystem-based management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable coastal planning, particularly in mangrove regions undergoing rapid development and environmental change.
Sea urchin fisheries have long played a cultural and economic role in many Mediterranean coastal communities, yet their trajectories and long-term sustainability remain poorly understood. In Corsica (Mediterranean Sea), the harvest of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816) has evolved from a traditional seasonal activity into a regulated small-scale fishery facing increasing ecological and governance challenges. Understanding how this fishery has changed over time is essential for anticipating its future and informing adaptive management strategies. By combining long-term reconstruction, fishery data, professional fishers' knowledge, and ecological monitoring, this study reconstructs the trajectory and current dynamics of the sea urchin fishery. Reconstructed catches increased from approximately 30 t in 1950 to peaks exceeding 90 t in the early 2010s, while model-based estimates reached 124 t in 2012. In contrast, declared landings between 2014 and 2025 ranged from 24 to 69 t, with a decline in declared landings during the 2024–2025 season, when harvesting was also closed early after the management quota was reached. The number of professional sea urchin fishers, fishing operations and catches were unevenly distributed among Corsican prud'homies. Seasonal CPUE showed high variability but no consistent long-term decline (16.6–26.4 kg h−1). Recreational harvesting was not explicitly considered due to limited data availability, although it may also affect population dynamics. Ecological monitoring revealed significant seasonal reductions in commercially sized individuals following the fishing season. Together, these findings suggest that stable catch indicators may mask underlying demographic erosion in spatially heterogeneous systems. The Corsican case illustrates broader challenges faced by Mediterranean small-scale benthic fisheries and highlights the value of integrating fishery-dependent and fishery-independent indicators, spatially explicit ecological information, and local ecological knowledge to support more adaptive approaches to fisheries management and governance.
Understanding coastal change at national scales requires spatially consistent datasets capable of capturing both the diversity and dynamism of shoreline behaviour. This study applies the CoastSat shoreline-extraction framework to satellite imagery spanning 1999–2020 to quantify sandy-coastline change across England and Wales at 10 m alongshore resolution. More than one million transects were analysed using spatial autocorrelation and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify dominant modes of variability and assess the coherence of shoreline change. Results reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity. Autocorrelation decays within the kilometre scale, suggesting that decadal-scale shoreline behaviour is governed by small-scale, localised morphodynamic processes. PCA further shows that the dominant long-term mode of change (PC1) is stable, whereas higher-order components capture wider regional and temporal variability. Transitions between erosional and accretional states are rare, demonstrating path-dependence and persistence in shoreline trajectories. The findings highlight the value of high-resolution, reproducible Earth-observation datasets for national coastal assessment, while also underscoring ongoing uncertainties associated with satellite-derived shoreline extraction. From a management perspective, the strong localisation of morphological change and the persistence of shoreline states reinforce the need for adaptive, site-specific strategies within broader national planning frameworks. Continued integration of satellite monitoring with local observations, models and climate projections will be essential for supporting resilient coastal management across the UK.
The 2014 European Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive requires all Member States to develop maritime spatial plans, aiming for transboundary and ecosystem-based MSP. However, cross-border data heterogeneity may impact MSP broader aims and the potential alignment with other relevant European policies, e.g., Maritime Strategy Framework Directive, European Green Deal, Ocean Pact. The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) has addressed this challenge by creating the MSP Data Model and formally harmonising national plans under common zoning definitions and sea use categories. Yet, these plans remain fundamentally different in practice, posing a risk of misinterpretation. This study presents the first systematic comparative analysis of the 13 Maritime Spatial Plans harmonised according to the EMODnet MSP Data Model, assessing the level of harmonisation achieved and providing recommendations for further improvements. We applied a mixed methodology integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches, ensuring an in-depth understanding of national plans. First, an Exploratory Data Analysis was conducted with a custom software tool developed within the EMFAF-ReMAP project. This analysis produced results on Zoning Elements, Sea uses and Functions, Coexistence of uses, and also a Diagnosis analysis mapping the flow from national categories to EMODnet classifications. Second, semi-structured interviews with MSP experts and planners allowed to better understand and interpret the harmonised plans. Results revealed high heterogeneity across the plans, quantified in 76 harmonisation issues, dominated by structural discrepancies between national planning logics and EMODnet assumptions, followed by semantic mismatches and minor errors. We conclude that EMODnet harmonisation substantially improves accessibility and supports comparative analyses, although cross-border interpretation still requires clearer traceability to original categories and better access to national plans metadata and information. Ultimately, these findings highlight that addressing the remaining harmonisation gaps is essential for MSP to effectively support transboundary cooperation and decision-making, in compliance with European policies.
We propose a trajectory-based framework for estimating localized vessel carbon emissions and identifying recurrent speed-change zones using AIS trajectory data. As decarbonization has emerged as a critical global issue requiring collective efforts, researchers in maritime transport have increasingly focused on developing analytical tools to calculate vessel carbon emissions to assess how regulatory or control measures can contribute to decarbonization and carbon neutrality in shipping. Existing approaches are not sufficiently place-based and therefore cannot adequately address location-specific speed zoning or control measures. They also fail to reflect the dynamic variations in emissions and speed changes that occur during voyages under localized operational conditions and physical environments. The method proposed in this study introduces GIS-based movement analytics and integrates fine-grained vessel movement, variable speed changes, and spatial clustering to identify locations where emission-related speed changes are repeatedly induced in geographically constrained navigation environments. Experimental results using AIS data show that carbon emission estimates based on an origin-destination average-speed approach can differ by up to 39.85% compared with the proposed method, and these discrepancies are particularly evident in segments characterized by high-speed variability and strong geographic constraints. In several cargo vessel cases, clear patterns of increases and decreases in both emissions and speed were observed at route-turning points, port entry and exit segments, and transition areas from narrow waterways to open waters. We demonstrate the potential for developing effective decarbonization strategies based on speed control in zones where such speed-change patterns occur.
The initiation of oil extraction at the offshore Sangomar field (Senegal) raises concerns about the potential exposure of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to oil pollution. This study quantifies the hydrodynamic connectivity between the extraction zone (13.7°N, 17.6°W) and five MPAs (Saint-Louis, Cayar, Gorée, Sangomar, and Abéné) over the period 2012–2019, using Lagrangian particle tracking (ARIANE) driven by a high-resolution regional CROCO simulation and, alternatively, by Copernicus SMOC surface currents. The results reveal marked spatial and temporal variability in hydrodynamic connectivity, enabling the MPAs to be ranked according to their potential hydrodynamic exposure. Gorée and Cayar exhibit the highest hydrodynamic exposure indicators, with median connection times of 16 to 24 days, while Abéné exhibits minimal exposure. Connectivity reaches its maximum during the warm season (June–September), a period characterized by relaxed upwelling and coastal currents that favor northeastward transport toward the Senegalese coast. By contrast, connectivity remains weak during the upwelling season (November–May), which is dominated by a strong southward jet. Two-dimensional (2D) Lagrangian simulations, constrained to the surface layer, yield transport volumes 1.5 to 3 times greater than those derived from three-dimensional (3D) simulations, which account for vertical particle movement throughout the water column. In the 3D configuration, 40% of particles initially released in the surface layer (0–4 m) exit this layer during their trajectories, emphasizing the importance of vertical processes in particle dispersion. An analysis of Stokes drift contributions to surface transport, using two independent methods (CROCO surface currents combined with a wind-derived surface component representing the Stokes drift term, and the SMOC product, which explicitly provides Stokes drift), indicates a 5%–15% increase in transport during high-swell episodes, a variation likely arising from complex wind-wave–current interactions. These findings provide a physically based framework for identifying seasonal exposure zones and supporting environmental monitoring and oil-spill preparedness. They identify the Gorée–Cayar sector as exhibiting the strongest hydrodynamic connectivity between June and September and highlight the importance of incorporating three-dimensional hydrodynamics and wave-induced transport into contingency planning. More broadly, this study provides practical guidance for marine spatial planning in Senegal and emphasizes the value of regional cooperation under the Abidjan Convention.
Mangrove ecosystems provide essential services that support community well-being, yet they face increasing pressures from urbanisation and land conversion in developing countries, where policy implementation is often criticized for limited local inclusion. To examine gaps between national policy intentions and community perspective, this study conducts empirical analysis in Balikpapan, Indonesia, a strategic area serving as a gateway to the new capital. Using a mixed-methods case study design, we assess alignment between formal policy arrangements for mangrove ecotourism and community perspective through analysis of national, provincial, and city-level policy documents, 28 stakeholder interviews, and 100 community surveys across five coastal sites. Data were examined using the Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA), encompassing four dimensions of discourses, actors, rules, and resources, complemented by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to quantify community activity preferences. We applied the triangulation method and evaluated against five principles in community-based ecotourism (CBET): environmental conservation, cultural preservation, community participation, economic benefits, and empowerment. Findings reveal substantial disconnects: 80% of residents reported receiving no economic benefits; the policy's eco-cultural narrative lacked grounding in local cultural practices; governance preferences were fragmented (39% favouring local government and 37% favouring local communities); and conservation rules restrict the infrastructure development required by local tourism objectives. These misalignments indicate that rigid, uniform policy arrangements remain ineffective. Policy implications include establishing transparent mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund management, differentiating participation models according to community capacity, and resolving regulatory inconsistencies across agencies to reduce operational bottlenecks.
Gender diversity in corporate governance has been extensively examined across economic sectors; however, its role in the traditionally male-dominated maritime and port industry remains largely unexplored. This paper investigates whether gender diversity on boards of directors and management teams in Spanish Port Authorities is associated with financial efficiency, using cross-sectional data from the 28 Spanish Port Authorities observed in 2019. Following the two-stage approach of Simar and Wilson (2007), financial efficiency scores are first estimated through bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis and then regressed on measures of gender diversity and controls for port size and cargo specialisation. The results indicate that greater gender diversity on boards of directors is significantly associated with higher efficiency, whereas diversity within management teams shows no significant association. This findings suggest that initiatives to increase women's representation in port governance may support both gender balance and organisational performance, provided sector-specific expertise is ensured.
Climate change has already altered North Sea ecosystems yet anticipating how future environmental change will translate into ecosystem-wide consequences requires models that capture both direct environmental constraints and trophic interactions. The Southern Bight of the North Sea (SBNS) is a shallow, heavily exploited shelf region, making it a relevant case for evaluating food web and fisheries responses to climate change. Here, we calibrated an Ecopath with Ecosim food web model of the SBNS and quantified how future changes in sea surface temperature and salinity may affect biomass dynamics, catch potential, and fisheries-relevant species. We develop a novel climate-forcing implementation that better retains seasonality and yields more ecologically interpretable climate effects than comparable studies, particularly for eurythermal species. Projections reveal distinct climate-driven winners and losers. Cold-affiliated species with limited thermal tolerance, including cod, plaice, and herring, show increasingly negative responses under stronger warming scenarios, resulting in reduced biomass and catch by the end of the century. In contrast, warm-affiliated and eurythermal species, including sea bass, sole, sprat, and several benthic invertebrate groups, generally benefit in a warming SBNS. Furthermore, several responses diverge from envelope-based expectations: notably, sandeels increased under stronger warming through trophic release, despite experiencing suboptimal temperatures, as demersal predators became increasingly constrained. Overall, warming may constrain total catches by 10% by 2100, largely through reductions in cod and plaice. This ecosystem-based modelling approach provides a transparent basis for supporting climate-aware fisheries decisions in the SBNS. Furthermore, the methods presented here may serve as a blueprint for exploring climate effects in other exploited marine regions.
Scenic quality is a recognized cultural ecosystem service, yet it rarely enters coastal conservation decisions in a structured way. This paper try to resolve two questions: how far does high scenic quality coincide with formal protection, and can scenic and typological attributes be organised into a transparent, falsifiable procedure for suggesting protection instruments? We compiled the largest available Coastal Scenic Evaluation System (CSES) dataset, 1709 sites in 44 countries, and isolated the 601 sites of Classes I and II. This is an opportunistic, non-probabilistic compilation, heavily concentrated in five countries (53% of sites), and we treat that as a first-order constraint on inference rather than as a caveat. Within the sample, 224 of the 601 sites (37.3%) carry no formal designation; Class I sites are protected at 72.3% and Class II at 49.8% (OR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.87–3.69). Protection rates are higher in Europe (78.8%) than elsewhere (49.7%), but a logistic model with country-clustered errors, together with the sampling structure, shows that this contrast is inseparable from where the dataset was collected; we therefore report it as a property of the sample and not as a global equity finding. We then specify a protection-assignment scaffold that maps scenic class, typology, anthropogenic pressure, geoform and tenure onto an ordinal protection-strength band, with explicit rules and conflict resolution, and we test it against a pre-specified failure criterion. It fails that test: concordance with existing designations (44.3% exact) does not exceed a trivial “always recommend the strictest band” baseline (47.2%), and agreement is at chance (κ = −0.005; adequacy rate 63.5% vs. permutation expectation 63.9%, p = 0.68). We interpret this not as a defect of the scaffold but as direct evidence for the paper's premise: existing coastal designations are not made on scenic or typological grounds, so concordance with them is the wrong benchmark and cannot validate any scenic-based tool. The scaffold is therefore presented as a normative, auditable decision-support device a hypothesis about how scenic evidence could enter designation, not as a validated predictor of it. Applied to a 92-site regional case in the Colombian Caribbean, where 77.2% of high-scenic sites are undesignated, it surfaces 32 candidates for strict instruments and 39 for landscape, buffer or other effective area-based measures, including sites that biodiversity-led prioritisation had not flagged. Scenic value emerges as a defensible complement to, never a substitute for, biodiversity-based criteria.
The ongoing spread of exotic mangroves poses an increasing ecological threat to native mangrove biodiversity, community stability, and coastal wetland ecosystem functions. In China, Sonneratia apetala and Laguncularia racemosa have been widely introduced for mangrove restoration due to their rapid growth and high environmental adaptability; however, their potential spatial conflicts with native mangroves remain insufficiently quantified. This study developed a risk-oriented spatial assessment framework to distinguish habitat suitability from potential conflict zones between native and exotic mangroves in Guangdong, China. By integrating MaxEnt modeling across natural, human-disturbance, and future climate scenarios with spatial overlap and Potential Conflict Index (PCI) analyses, the framework provides a management-oriented evaluation of exotic-native mangrove conflicts. Scenario comparisons revealed sharp contrasts: human disturbance drastically reduced highly suitable habitats (HSA) by 17.0–66.6% from natural baselines (80,315 ha, 43,193 ha, and 12,127 ha for native, S. apetala, and L. racemosa), shrinking PCI-identified high conflict zones from 160,350 ha to 135,239 ha. Future climate induced further contraction to 109,911 ha, driven primarily by L. racemosa's high sensitivity versus S. apetala's sustained adaptability. Despite these shifting dynamics, the PCI consistently highlighted Zhanjiang and Yangjiang as priority management areas. These spatial findings support a tiered management strategy predicated on prior field verification: targeted removal of exotics in identified conflict zones, restricting further exotic planting where native recovery potential is high, and promoting native-species-prioritized restoration in human-impacted coastal areas. This study provides a refined, spatially explicit framework for balancing mangrove restoration targets with the long-term integrity of native coastal ecosystems.
Inland waterway transport using tug-and-barge operations plays a vital role in freight transport by improving efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. This paper studies the tactical-level pricing and scheduling of tug-and-barge shuttle services in a barging network that connects multiple inland ports to a seaport. We consider a service in which tugboats depart empty, call sequentially at inland ports, and collect laden barges for delivery to the seaport. The interaction between an inland waterway logistics service provider and heterogeneous shippers located near different inland ports is formulated as a Stackelberg game, with the service provider as the leader and the shippers as followers. Our analysis shows that, despite heterogeneity in the distance to the seaport as well as in trucking prices and storage costs, profit-maximizing origin-specific pricing can, in many cases, result in a common shuttle cycle length across shippers. Such a pattern emerges endogenously from shippers’ cost-minimizing responses to origin-specific barge rates. We further characterize the distance-sensitive structure of optimal barge prices and identify parameter regimes in which the optimal barge price exceeds the trucking price, especially for shippers at more distant inland ports. Distance, inland storage charges, and free storage time at the seaport jointly determine how prices and profitability vary across inland ports. Finally, we find that optimal barge prices are relatively insensitive to demand changes, whereas the optimal shuttle service cycle length adjusts substantially, suggesting that demand growth should be accommodated primarily through service frequency adjustments rather than frequent price revisions.
Coastal zones worldwide are increasingly recognized as frontline regions where climate change, sea-level rise, and intensive human use converge, amplifying risks to communities, ecosystems, and critical infrastructure. Within this context, robust, spatially explicit vulnerability assessments are essential to inform evidence-based coastal management, adaptation planning, and disaster risk reduction. Peninsular Malaysia has an extensive and densely populated coastline that underpins national fisheries, trade, tourism, and urban development, yet remains highly exposed to monsoon-driven marine and fluvial processes. Its eastern and southern coastal regions, facing the South China Sea and the Singapore Strait, are particularly sensitive to seasonal wave climate, storm surges, river discharge, and rapid land-use change, creating complex spatial patterns of risk to coastal communities and infrastructure. Against this backdrop, coastal zones along the eastern and southern shores of Peninsular Malaysia are subjected to multiple interacting hazards, while many existing assessments still emphasize single-hazard perspectives or coarse administrative units. This study develops a pixel-based Multi-Hazard Coastal Vulnerability Index (MHCVI) for a 10 km inland coastal belt covering Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, and Johor by integrating three hazard layers, riverine flood inundation, coastal inundation, and coastal erosion, with six vulnerability and exposure layers: slope, land use and land cover, population density, road density, building footprint density, and geology/lithology. The analysis relies entirely on open geospatial datasets within a GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis framework, and criterion weights are derived using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reflect expert judgement and coastal vulnerability principles. The results reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity in both hazard and vulnerability across the eastern and southern coastal regions. Riverine flooding emerges as the most influential hazard, with Pahang recording the highest share of very high flood susceptibility and Johor exhibiting the largest proportion of no-hazard areas. The vulnerability component is dominated by high vulnerability classes at the regional scale, with the strongest concentrations in Kelantan and Pahang, where densely settled low-lying corridors coincide with susceptible terrain. The final MHCVI output highlights extensive hotspots of high and very high multi-hazard risk in these states, while also delineating substantial stretches of lower-risk coastline. Conclusively, the study demonstrates that coastal risk in eastern and southern Peninsular Malaysia is governed by the spatial convergence of multiple hazards with persistent physical susceptibility and localized human exposure, and it provides a transparent, reproducible framework to support coastal risk screening, spatial planning, and climate adaptation in monsoon-affected coastal environments.
Artificial reefs (ARs) are increasingly promoted as ecological infrastructure to restore marine habitats and strengthen small-scale fisheries. Yet their adoption remains uneven, raising broader questions about how sustainability-oriented technologies are accepted within resource-dependent communities. Conceptualizing ARs as socio-technical interventions embedded within institutional and ecological systems, this study extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to examine fishers’ behavioural intention to adopt ARs in coastal Tamil Nadu, India. Using primary data from 442 fishers and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), the model explains 70.1% of the variance in behavioural intention. Trust in technology, environmental compatibility, and facilitating conditions emerge as the most influential determinants, underscoring the importance of institutional credibility, ecological fit, and governance support in shaping adoption. Perceived risk exerts a significant negative influence, reflecting concerns over environmental uncertainty and long-term sustainability. In contrast, effort expectancy and habit show limited explanatory power, suggesting that collective ecological technologies operate differently from individual-use digital innovations typically examined in technology acceptance research. By extending UTAUT to the domain of environmental infrastructure, this study contributes to debates on the societal embedding of sustainability technologies and offers policy insights for enhancing the legitimacy and uptake of state-led ecological interventions. The findings provide practical insights for fisheries managers designing artificial reef programmes, highlighting the importance of institutional support, environmental suitability of deployment sites, and risk communication in encouraging community adoption.
