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Sustainable and Integrated Coastal Zone Management Under a Changing Climate: Innovations and Insights

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Oceans".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 407

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Interests: coastal erosion and flooding; coastal morphodynamics and engineering; sediment transport and hydrodynamic processes; development and application of numerical models and tools; Multi-criteria decision methods; coastal protection design; climate change impacts; integrated coastal zone management (ICZM)
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Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: coastal hydro-morphodynamics; coastal engineering; numerical modeling; climate change impacts; ICZM and beach management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on advancing the scientific discussion on the resilience and sustainability of coastal zones under climate variability and change. The increasing temperatures, the accelerating mean sea-level rise, and the increasing frequency of extreme events will increase the climatic risks for coastal ecosystems, populations, critical infrastructure and socio-economic activities. The scope and urgency of these challenges calls for interdisciplinary, robust and innovative approaches to adaptation.

This SI aims to include studies on the climatic hazards, exposure and vulnerability of the coastal zones and on science-based adaptive management frameworks. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in balancing ecological conservation, socio-economic resilience, and sustainable development. Contributions employing geospatial tools, climatic projections, system modeling, reviews of the existing regulatory frameworks and multi-criteria decision analysis to inform coastal policies are highly encouraged.

Further, this SI aims to bridge gaps between the sustainability science, coastal science and engineering, and policy-making. Aligned with Sustainability's mission, it will contribute to addressing challenges associated to disaster risk reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals, such as SDG9—resilient infrastructure; SDG13—climate action; and SDG14—conservation of marine ecosystems, and informing decisions for sustainable coastal futures.

Dr. Isavela N. Monioudi
Dr. Antonios Emmanouil Chatzipavlis
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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

  • Integrated Coastal Management (ICM)
  • coastal sustainability
  • climate change
  • adaptation
  • coastal resilience
  • sea-level rise
  • coastal infrastructure
  • ecosystem-based management
  • decision support tools
  • coastal risk assessment
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

33 pages, 10703 KB  
Article
Ranking Port Criticality Under Climate Change: An Assessment of Greece
by Isavela N. Monioudi, Adonis F. Velegrakis, Amalia Polydoropoulou, Dimitris Chatzistratis, Konstantinos Moschopoulos, Efstathios Bouhouras, Georgios Papaioannou, Theodoros Chalazas, George K. Vaggelas, Antonis E. Chatzipavlis, Antigoni Nikolaou and Helen Thanopoulou
Sustainability 2025, 17(24), 11113; https://doi.org/10.3390/su172411113 - 11 Dec 2025
Viewed by 208
Abstract
Ports are vital components of global and regional supply chains, supporting trade, transport connectivity, and socio-economic development. However, their functionality is increasingly threatened by climatic hazards such as sea-level rise and heat stress, both of which are projected to intensify under future climate [...] Read more.
Ports are vital components of global and regional supply chains, supporting trade, transport connectivity, and socio-economic development. However, their functionality is increasingly threatened by climatic hazards such as sea-level rise and heat stress, both of which are projected to intensify under future climate change. This study presents a comprehensive framework for assessing the criticality of ports within a national network, demonstrated through its application to the Greek port system, which encompasses a multitude of ports of all types from large international hubs to small island ones. The framework combines openly accessible geospatial and socio-economic data with projections of exposure to sea-level rise and extreme heat within a structured multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, enabling the identification of critical ports and the prioritization of adaptation needs. Results show that large mainland ports dominate in socio-economic importance and network centrality, while smaller island ports are vital locally due to limited redundancy and high exposure to climatic hazards. By 2100, nearly all ports are projected to experience freeboard reductions below operational thresholds and increased heat-related stress. These results highlight the need for targeted adaptation measures, including engineering interventions for mainland ports and redundancy-enhancing actions for island ports. The proposed framework provides a replicable, data-driven tool to guide evidence-based prioritization of adaptation investments and strengthen climate-resilient maritime transport and coastal management, thereby contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1.5, 9 and 13. Full article
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