Identification and prioritization of areas with high environmental risk in Mediterranean coastal areas: A flexible approach

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are the cornerstone for the future management of coastal ecosystems with many vulnerability and hazard indexes developed for this purpose, especially in the engineering literature, but with limited studies that considered ecological implications within a risk assessment. Similarly, the concept of prioritization of sites has been widely examined in biodiversity conservation studies, but only recently as an instrument for territory management. Considering coastal plant diversity at the species and community levels, and their vulnerability to three main potential hazards threatening coastal areas (oil spills, Hazardous and Noxious Substances pollution, fragmentation of natural habitats), the objective of this paper is to define an easy-to-use approach to locate and prioritize the areas more susceptible to those stressors, in order to have a practical instrument for risk management in the ordinary and extra-ordinary management of the coastline. The procedure has been applied at pilot areas in four Mediterranean countries (Italy, France, Lebanon and Tunisia). This approach can provide policy planners, decision makers and local communities an easy-to-use instrument able to facilitate the implementation of the ICZM (Integrated Coastal Zone Management) process in their territory.

Effect of Invasive Alien Species on the Co-Occurrence Patterns of Bryophytes and Vascular Plant Species—The Case of a Mediterranean Disturbed Sandy Coast

“…In the Mediterranean Basin, well preserved coastal habitats became rarer as the anthropogenic pressure increased, mainly consisting in touristic settlements, habitat fragmentation and inappropriate land management, such as reforestation with alien species [11,[18][19][20][21]. Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognized as an important threat to biodiversity worldwide [22] and especially in rare and extreme environments (such as alpine zone or isolated islands, [23][24][25]).…”

A Sediment Detection Analysis with Multi Sensor Satellites: Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf case studies

“…(b1 le 0)*0+(b1 ge 10000)*1+(b1 gt 0 and b1 lt 10000) * float (b1)/10000 (1) After this step we have positive values (red square) in pixels of bands.…”

“…Monitoring and analysis of coastal and marine areas is of utmost importance. Several analysis methods have been proposed as environment sensitivity [1], risk assessment [2], the use of GIS [3] and others. In this context, the use of multi sensor satellite data to detect, identify and record environmental pollution data on sea water has significantly increased in the last decade.…”

Effect of Meteorological Variables on Air Pollutants Variation in Arid Climates

“…Volatile organic compounds (VOC) comprise a very wide range of substances such as hydrocarbons, oxygenates, halogenates and other carbon compounds existing in the atmosphere in the vapor phase [28]. The predominant source is typically through leakage from pressurized systems (natural gas, methane) combustion of fossil or evaporation of a liquid fuel such as benzene from the fuel tank of a vehicle [29].…”