Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.0
3.0
Journals
Water
Special Issues
New Insights into Sea Level Dynamics and Coastal Erosion
water-logo
Submit to Water Review for Water Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

New Insights into Sea Level Dynamics and Coastal Erosion

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Oceans and Coastal Zones".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2025) | Viewed by 2621

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Thomas R. Allen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Political Science & Geography, Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR), Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
Interests: coastal and estuarine mapping; marine and coastal GIS; natural hazards
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Richard Hale

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ocean & Earth Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
Interests: sediment transport coastal processes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Coastal storms and sea-level rise are widely recognized as increasingly severe threats to coastal communities and ecosystems. Intensive scientific studies on sea-level dynamics and coastal geomorphology are revealing complex sedimentologic, vegetative, and anthropogenic responses that vary over space and time. However, tipping points, thresholds, and non-linearities in the evolution of coastal systems continue to cloud our ability to forecast evolution in these dynamic settings. To improve our understanding of coupled natural-human dynamics on coasts, it becomes attractive to develop conceptual frameworks, numerical models, and diverse observational approaches. Concomitantly, enormous volumes of data from Earth observations, in situ sensors, and Uncrewed Autonomous Systems (UAS) are proving valuable for data-based analyses and validation of modeling and simulation. There is a need for the synthesis of short- and long-term processes for sustainable coastal development, which presents a demand and opportunity to bring together the current theory, practice, and methodological advances in coastal systems.

This Special Issue seeks to collect and share relevant advances and insights into coastal geomorphic systems undergoing sea-level rise. Potential topics in the context of coastal landforms and sea-level change include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Coastal paleolandform evolution and paleotempestology along coasts;
  • Vertical land motion effects on coastal landforms and processes;
  • Multi-modal observations of coastal landform change;
  • Regime shifts among riverine–estuarine–marine processes;
  • Erosion, transportation, and depositional processes;
  • Morphodynamic modeling of coastal landform responses;
  • Natural and nature-based infrastructure and coastal landform changes;
  • Long-term efficacy of living shorelines with sea-level change;
  • Sustainable development in coastal systems undergoing sea-level change.

Dr. Thomas R. Allen
Dr. Richard Hale
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 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. Water 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 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

  • coastal erosion
  • sea-level rise
  • coastal morphodynamics
  • coastal geomorphology
  • sustainable development

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

30 pages, 16884 KB  
Article
Evaluating the Long-Term Effectiveness of Marsh Terracing for Conservation with Integrated Geospatial and Wetland Simulation Modeling
by Nick Carpenter, Laura Costadone and Thomas R. Allen
Water 2025, 17(18), 2769; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17182769 - 18 Sep 2025
Viewed by 336
Abstract
Coastal marshes provide essential ecosystem services, yet they are vulnerable to anthropogenic stressors and climate change, particularly sea level rise (SLR). Restoration approaches like marsh terracing have emerged as nature-based strategies to enhance resilience and reduce habitat loss. This study applies the Sea [...] Read more.
Coastal marshes provide essential ecosystem services, yet they are vulnerable to anthropogenic stressors and climate change, particularly sea level rise (SLR). Restoration approaches like marsh terracing have emerged as nature-based strategies to enhance resilience and reduce habitat loss. This study applies the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) to assess the potential of marsh terraces to mitigate future losses, while also examining the model’s limitations, including its assumptions and capacity to reflect complex marsh processes. A geospatial approach was used to generate 3D representations of terraces through morphostatic modeling within digital elevation models (DEMs). Under a no-restoration scenario, SLAMM projections show that all marshes analyzed are at risk of total loss by 2100. In contrast, scenarios including terracing demonstrate a delay in net marsh loss, extending the persistence of key marsh habitats by approximately a decade. Although marsh degradation remains likely under high SLR conditions, the results underscore the utility of marsh terraces in prolonging habitat stability. Additionally, the study demonstrates the feasibility of integrating restoration features like terraces into DEMs and wetland models. Despite SLAMM’s simplified erosion and accretion assumptions, the model yields important insights into restoration effectiveness and long-term marsh dynamics, informing more adaptive, forward-looking coastal management strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Sea Level Dynamics and Coastal Erosion)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 4299 KB  
Article
A Comparison of Characteristics of Infilling Sediments in Three Mud-Capped Dredge Pits on the Louisiana Continental Shelf
by Wenqiang Zhang, Kehui Xu, Chaochen Jia, Adam Gartelman, Omar Alawneh, Navid Jafari, Colin Herke, Madison Liotta and Samuel J. Bentley
Water 2025, 17(17), 2643; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17172643 - 7 Sep 2025
Viewed by 667
Abstract
Due to high sedimentation rate up to ~1 m/year, mud-capped dredge pits (MCDP) are often considered natural laboratories for studying sedimentary processes, slope stability and the impacts of dredging activities on marine environments. Although many studies have been performed on the Louisiana shelf, [...] Read more.
Due to high sedimentation rate up to ~1 m/year, mud-capped dredge pits (MCDP) are often considered natural laboratories for studying sedimentary processes, slope stability and the impacts of dredging activities on marine environments. Although many studies have been performed on the Louisiana shelf, there is a lack of high spatial resolution research covering the eastern, central and western Louisiana shelf to comprehensively investigate sediment infilling. Eighteen vibracores were collected from the Peveto Channel dredge pit (PC), Raccoon Island dredge pit (RI) and Sandy Point dredge pit (SP), and more than 1300 samples were analyzed to study the spatial variation in surficial sediment using statistical analyses. Our results indicate that the inner Louisiana continental shelf is silt-dominated, and there was no consistent grain size variation when comparing the sediment within the pits with that outside the pits. Skewness emerged as a prominent factor in the RI and SP, while standard deviation was the most influential in the PC. Our analysis shows also that two principal components are confirmed and account for more than 95% of the total grain size variance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Sea Level Dynamics and Coastal Erosion)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 7848 KB  
Article
The Impact of Inundation and Nitrogen on Common Saltmarsh Species Using Marsh Organ Experiments in Mississippi
by Kelly M. San Antonio, Wei Wu, Makenzie Holifield and Hailong Huang
Water 2025, 17(10), 1504; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17101504 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 574
Abstract
Sea level rise is an escalating threat to saltmarsh ecosystems as increased inundation can lead to decreased biomass, lowered productivity, and plant death. Another potential stressor is elevated nitrogen often brought into coastal regions via freshwater diversions. Nitrogen has a controversial impact on [...] Read more.
Sea level rise is an escalating threat to saltmarsh ecosystems as increased inundation can lead to decreased biomass, lowered productivity, and plant death. Another potential stressor is elevated nitrogen often brought into coastal regions via freshwater diversions. Nitrogen has a controversial impact on belowground biomass, potentially affecting saltmarsh stability. In this study, we examined the effects of inundation and nitrogen on common saltmarsh plants (Spartina alterniflora and Spartina patens) placed within two marsh organs (a collection of PVC pipes at different levels, the varied elevation levels expose the plants to different inundation amounts) located in the Pascagoula River, Mississippi, USA, with six rows and eight replicates in each row. We randomly fertilized four replicates in each row with 25 g/m2 of NH4+-N every two-three weeks during the growing season in 2021 and 2022. We concurrently collected vegetative traits such as plant height and leaf count to better understand strategies saltmarshes utilize to maximize survival or growth. We harvested half of the vegetation in Year 1 and the remaining in Year 2 to evaluate the impact of inundation and nitrogen on above- and belowground biomass at different temporal scales. We developed Bayesian models that show inundation had a largely positive impact on S. alterniflora and a mostly negative impact S. patens, suggesting that S. alterniflora will adapt better to increasing inundation than S. patens. Additionally, fertilized plants from both species had higher aboveground biomass than non-fertilized plants for both years, with nitrogen addition only showing impact on belowground biomass in the long term. Our results highlight the importance of long-term study to facilitate more-informed restoration and conservation efforts in coastal wetlands while accounting for climate change and sea level rise. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into Sea Level Dynamics and Coastal Erosion)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop