This paper presents a species distribution model (SDM) to quantify relationships between environmental variables and habitat suitability using unbalanced presence-absence data common in ecology. The proposed model applies a stratified sample balancing scheme for the random forest classifier where every classification tree receives a balanced sample of presence and absence. The model is applied to the Australian coast's seagrass habitats, where seagrass populations have been on the decline. Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) seagrass presence-absence data is used to train the model. Seagrasses are observed at 97.6% of the survey locations, and seagrass absence is recorded at only 2.4% of the survey locations. The proposed model's accuracy is validated with an independent dataset on seagrass presence from the Coastal and Marine Resources Information System (CAMRIS). The environmental variables used in the analysis are obtained from the Ecological Marine Units (EMU) dataset. The variables on human-driven stressors to seagrass habitats due to ship traffic are obtained from World Port Index. The proposed model predicts seagrass absence at a recall rate of 80%, whereas the random forest recall rate is 24%. The model's variable importance profile aligns with the main drivers behind seagrass habitats reported in the literature. A case study is conducted for quantifying the impacts of two proposed ports in the Gulf of Carpenteria on the local seagrass habitats. Results show that balancing improves the explanatory and predictive capabilities of an SDM to define conditions resulting in a species' absence, aiding conservation planning with realistic species distributions.

Marine environments provide ecosystem services jeopardised by human activities, resulting in impacts requiring urgent attention. In Europe and southern Mediterranean countries like Italy, marine environmental problems of note include marine litter, overfishing and climate change, among others. Public engagement is essential in mitigating these problems. In this context, investigating public perceptions and what influences these perceptions is necessary to design the right public engagement strategies. This study evaluated perceptions of marine environmental issues among coastal recreational users along the Conero Riviera in the Adriatic Sea. This is a location used for many coastal activities, affected by several human impacts and considered to become a marine protected area. A total of 202 coastal recreational users were interviewed regarding their perceptions of marine environmental issues including awareness, concern, observed changes in the local coast, and pro-environmental behaviours to combat marine environmental issues. Regression analysis was used to determine influential variables in perceptions. The participants were mainly aware of and concerned about issues including pollution, litter and overfishing. They had observed changes in the local coast primarily encompassing wildlife reduction, toxic algal growth and mucilage. They engaged in pro-environmental behaviours principally including recycling, litter collection and pollution reduction. Awareness of marine environmental issues influenced concern, while the observation of coastal changes and pro-environmental behaviours were mainly influenced by demographic variables like water use and gender. The results of this study were used to make recommendations concerning the design of communication and education campaigns and strategies to stimulate pro-environmental behaviours to support marine conservation.

The feasibility and efficacy of soft engineering foredune restoration approaches still lack insight from research and monitoring activities, especially in areas where dunes are under persisting human disturbance. We evaluated the efficacy of Mediterranean foredune restoration in dune areas freely accessible to tourists. Foredunes were reconstructed using only sand already available at nearby places and consolidated through the plantation of seedlings of native ecosystem engineer species and foredune focal species. We monitored transplanted and spontaneous seedlings for one year to assess their mortality and growth in relation to the distance from the closest beach access, either formal or informal, as proxy of human disturbance. We also tested whether species differing in their ecology (i.e., affinity to a given habitat) and growth form showed different response to human disturbance. The relationship between seedling mortality and growth and the distance from the closest beach access was tested through Generalized Linear Mixed Models. We found a clear spatial pattern of seedling survival and growth, which decreased as the proximity to the closest beach access increased. Only invasive alien plants and erect leafy species showed to better perform at lower distances from beach accesses. In dune areas with a strong tourist vocation, foredune restoration should be coupled with the implementation of integrated management plans aiming at optimising the relationship between protection and use. Management plans should not only rely on passive conservation measures; rather they should include educational activities to stimulate a pro-environmental behaviour, increase the acceptance of behaviour rules and no entry zones, and actively engage stakeholders in long-term conservation.

The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive was ratified (2014/89/EU) along the Strategy of the European Union (EU) on the Blue Economy to contribute to the effective management of maritime activities and resources and incorporate the principal elements of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) (2002/413/EC) into planning at the land-sea interface. There is a need to develop the ICZM approach throughout Europe to realise the potential for both socio-economic and environmental targets set by the EU and national legislations. In this study, we co-developed different approaches for land-sea interactions in four case areas in Estonia and Finland based on the defined characteristics and key interests derived from local or regional challenges by integrating spatial data on human activities and ecology. Furthermore, four ICZM drafts were co-evaluated by stakeholders and the public using online map-based assessment tools (public participatory GIS). The ICZM approaches of the Estonian cases ranged from the diversification of land use to the enhancement of community-based entrepreneurship. The Finnish cases aimed to define the trends for sustainable marine and coastal tourism and introduce the ecosystem service concept in land use planning. During the project activities, we found that increased communication and exchange of local and regional views and values on the prevailing land-sea interactions were important for the entire process. Thereafter, the ICZM plans were applied to the MSP processes nationally, and they support the sustainable development of coastal areas in Estonia and Finland.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery is considered the best approach to acquire high-resolution data over a large area in a short time, such as in the case of coastal wetlands comprising small-sized patches of perennial plants. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have used UAV imagery to quantitatively estimate blue carbon in coastal wetlands. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the area-wide carbon stocks accumulated in halophyte habitats through the case studies of the southern coastal wetlands in South Korea using UAV imagery. Accordingly, object-based image analysis was used to identify the spatial distribution of major halophytes based on the spectral reflectance derived from multispectral UAV images. Elemental analysis (EA) was performed to estimate the content of organic carbon accumulated in individual halophytes, and the halophyte communities identified in the case study area were confirmed to have accumulated 20.80 MgC of blue carbon. These results demonstrate that applying EA to UAV images can be an innovative method to solve the spatial uncertainty encountered in the monitoring of blue carbon in existing field-based surveys and traditional remote sensing.

Gaza’ coastal zone suffers from permanent erosion as a result of the anthropogenic intervention. This study aims to assess and map land-use / land cover and shoreline changes in Gaza coastal zone using remote sensing and GIS tools as a step towards implementing coastal zone management. In addition, bathymetric map will be extracted using Landsat-8 image. Firstly, land-use / land cover change detection was carried out using SPOT-5, Landsat and Quick Bird for the years 2004, 2009 and 2016. Six classes were assigned to the study area using maximum supervised classification to investigate the evolution during past period. Secondly, change detection along the shoreline was implemented over the past 42 years from 1972 to 2014. Finally, the ratio transform technique was applied to the newly acquired multi-spectral image to extract the nearshore bathymetric map of the coastal area. Results of change detection revealed that coastal area was significantly changed: urban/built-up and agricultural area expanded, whereas area of bare land / sand shrank by 14,52 km2. In addition, shoreline analysis showed that, northern regions were substantially eroded by 186,15,103 m2 in the period 1998–2007. Moreover, an accretion occurred at the southern beach of Gaza's fishing port with a rate of 9,53,103 m2/year during the period 2007–2014. Ultimately, it is concluded that ratio transform algorithm used to extract bathymetry could retrieve depths from -25 m to -30 m. In addition, the result shows a good correlation between the estimated algorithm depths and the observed depths.