Coastal zones, at the boundary between land and sea, experience growing pressures from anthropogenic and climatic factors. In addition, coastal areas are clearly anisotropic, with preferential directions for air, water and sedimentary flows, and this poses a formidable challenge for the understanding, prediction and management of such areas. The bio-geo-morphological settings are different according to latitude and prevailing weather patterns but the combination of stressors is producing increasing impacts, which require advanced capacities for understanding the driving processes and from that tailoring models and observations. Traditional data from in-situ observatories provide good information on the time evolution at specific points, which often fail to characterize the spatial patterns affecting coastal zones. In parallel and, in spite of the increased availability of satellite data, their reliability near coastal areas remains limited and their temporal coverage is not suited to characterize short duration events that are often affecting our coasts under highly variable weather conditions. It is therefore urgent to delineate a more complete picture of coastal zone pressures and their resulting impacts, focusing on the combination of stressors and the feedbacks between different scales and processes.
The topic of this special issue stems from the increasing quantity and quality of information provided by the new Copernicus constellation, together with the important developments in high resolution coupled models and the increasing capabilities on the computing systems dedicated to this problem. Such a combination of data and models support a more holistic and reliable prediction of coastal meteo-oceanographic processes and their implications for coastal zone sustainability and management. The incorporation of shallow water processes and their parameterizations for coupled models should advance the capacity of forecasts to ingest such advanced information into coastal stakeholders working routines. This should prove the shared benefits of using advanced information and of extending coastal forecasting and observation services to alleviate the increasing level of conflicts in squeezed coastal zones, which are only expected to grow under climate change.
The special issue, therefore, focuses on multi-scale and multi-disciplinary processes affecting coastal zones, with an emphasis on physical and geomorphological dimensions but looking also at the interactions with other disciplines. Contributions from all over the world are welcome for a readership that includes scientists, engineers, managers, conservationists and many other stakeholders. A non-exhaustive list of the addressed topics is illustrated by the following points:
- Theoretical and modeling developments for coupled and high-resolution simulations.
- New data and the corresponding assimilation techniques for coupled models.
- New or enhanced applications in line with the developments in modeling and data.
- Interaction processes such as those between waves and currents and how that affects the coastal turbulence levels.
- Boundary layer processes such as those in the free surface or seabed.
- Implications of discretization techniques and the use of structured and unstructured grids.
- Data assimilation for anisotropic and limited area domains.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for coastal sustainability.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for the reduction of maritime disasters.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for a more efficient and safer renewable energy extraction such as from wind farms.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for environmental control and water quality including oil spill applications.
This special issue welcomes theoretical or applied contributions and also regional to local studies, provided they emphasize their applicability or potential to be exported to other geographical areas.
The Topic Editors Prof. Agustin Sanchez-Arcilla, Dr. Joanna Staneva, and Prof. Manuel Espino declare that they are collaborating on the CEASELESS project and with the coastal oceanography community.
Coastal zones, at the boundary between land and sea, experience growing pressures from anthropogenic and climatic factors. In addition, coastal areas are clearly anisotropic, with preferential directions for air, water and sedimentary flows, and this poses a formidable challenge for the understanding, prediction and management of such areas. The bio-geo-morphological settings are different according to latitude and prevailing weather patterns but the combination of stressors is producing increasing impacts, which require advanced capacities for understanding the driving processes and from that tailoring models and observations. Traditional data from in-situ observatories provide good information on the time evolution at specific points, which often fail to characterize the spatial patterns affecting coastal zones. In parallel and, in spite of the increased availability of satellite data, their reliability near coastal areas remains limited and their temporal coverage is not suited to characterize short duration events that are often affecting our coasts under highly variable weather conditions. It is therefore urgent to delineate a more complete picture of coastal zone pressures and their resulting impacts, focusing on the combination of stressors and the feedbacks between different scales and processes.
The topic of this special issue stems from the increasing quantity and quality of information provided by the new Copernicus constellation, together with the important developments in high resolution coupled models and the increasing capabilities on the computing systems dedicated to this problem. Such a combination of data and models support a more holistic and reliable prediction of coastal meteo-oceanographic processes and their implications for coastal zone sustainability and management. The incorporation of shallow water processes and their parameterizations for coupled models should advance the capacity of forecasts to ingest such advanced information into coastal stakeholders working routines. This should prove the shared benefits of using advanced information and of extending coastal forecasting and observation services to alleviate the increasing level of conflicts in squeezed coastal zones, which are only expected to grow under climate change.
The special issue, therefore, focuses on multi-scale and multi-disciplinary processes affecting coastal zones, with an emphasis on physical and geomorphological dimensions but looking also at the interactions with other disciplines. Contributions from all over the world are welcome for a readership that includes scientists, engineers, managers, conservationists and many other stakeholders. A non-exhaustive list of the addressed topics is illustrated by the following points:
- Theoretical and modeling developments for coupled and high-resolution simulations.
- New data and the corresponding assimilation techniques for coupled models.
- New or enhanced applications in line with the developments in modeling and data.
- Interaction processes such as those between waves and currents and how that affects the coastal turbulence levels.
- Boundary layer processes such as those in the free surface or seabed.
- Implications of discretization techniques and the use of structured and unstructured grids.
- Data assimilation for anisotropic and limited area domains.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for coastal sustainability.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for the reduction of maritime disasters.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for a more efficient and safer renewable energy extraction such as from wind farms.
- New applications of simulated and observed data for environmental control and water quality including oil spill applications.
This special issue welcomes theoretical or applied contributions and also regional to local studies, provided they emphasize their applicability or potential to be exported to other geographical areas.
The Topic Editors Prof. Agustin Sanchez-Arcilla, Dr. Joanna Staneva, and Prof. Manuel Espino declare that they are collaborating on the CEASELESS project and with the coastal oceanography community.
