In the second half of 2020, the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering launched the JMSE 2019 Highly Cited Paper Awards to recognize the most highly cited papers of the past two years. Let us give our cordial congratulations to the winning articles!

1^st Prize:
Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward

Gonéri Le Cozannet, Robert J. Nicholls, Jochen Hinkel, William V. Sweet, Kathleen L. McInnes, Roderik S. W.Van de Wal, Aimée B. A. Slangen, Jason A. Lowe and Kathleen D. White
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5, 49; doi:10.3390/jmse5040049
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/5/4/49

Winning Article Introduction

Coastal zones are especially in need of climate services for adaptation as rising sea levels increasingly exacerbate flooding, erosion, and salinization hazards. An important component of these services will be sea level scenarios and projections tailored to a wide range of coastal users, such as communities at risk, land use planners, coastal infrastructure owners, or the insurance industry. Coastal scientists involved in the “Regional Sea Level Changes and Coastal Impacts”, part of Grand Challenge of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), have reviewed how annual to multi-decadal sea level projections can be used within coastal climate services. The resulting review article, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, examines the current state-of-the-art coastal climate services in the US, Australia, and France, and identifies the lessons learned. More broadly, the article also reviews current barriers in the development of coastal climate services, and identifies research and development efforts for overcoming barriers and facilitating their continued growth. In conclusion, our paper suggests that standard approaches are required to translate relative sea level information into useable forms for coastal management, including coastal adaptation.

Message from the Authors

JMSE has published many strong scientific papers in recent years, and we are confident that the journal will continue with its strong contribution to the coastal adaptation scientific community. Hence, we are very pleased to have received the Highly Cited Paper Award for the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, and we have subsequently decided to donate the 800 CHF prize to Oxfam France, a nonprofit organization acting to reduce inequality and poverty.

2^nd Prize:

Quantifying Economic Value of Coastal Ecosystem Services: A Review
Seyedabdolhossein Mehvar, Tatiana Filatova, Ali Dastgheib, Erik De Ruyter van Steveninck and Roshanka Ranasinghe
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2018, 6, 5; doi:10.3390/jmse6010005
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/6/1/5

Winning Article Introduction

The complexity of quantifying ecosystem services in monetary terms has long been a challenging issue for economists and ecologists. Many case-specific valuation studies have been carried out in various parts of the world. Yet, a coherent review on the valuation of coastal ecosystem services (CES), which systematically describes fundamental concepts, analyzes reported applications, and addresses the issue of climate change (CC) impacts on the monetary value of CES, is still lacking. In our article, we take a step towards addressing this knowledge gap by pursuing a coherent review that aims to provide policy makers, coastal zone managers, and researchers in multidisciplinary teams with a summary of the state-of-the-art and a guideline on the process of economic valuation of CES and potential changes in these values due to CC impacts. The article highlights the main concepts of CES valuation studies and offers a systematic analysis of the best practices by analyzing two global-scale and 30 selected local and regional case studies in which different CES have been valued.

Message from the Authors

It is our great pleasure to be among the three winners of the JMSE 2019 Highly Cited Paper Awards. JMSE has undoubtedly become a popular venue for cutting-edge research and new advances in the broad field of marine science and engineering, providing an attractive online open access format, great support services, and a quick handling process for papers. We look forward to further collaboration, and to the continued growth of the journal in the future.

3^rd Prize

Comparative Analysis of Coastal Flooding Vulnerability and Hazard Assessment at National Scale

Marcello Di Risio, Antonello Bruschi, Iolanda Lisi, Valeria Pesarino and Davide Pasquali
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5, 51; doi:10.3390/jmse5040051
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/5/4/51

Winning Article Introduction

The evaluation of the coastal hazard and vulnerability caused by storms is crucial when coastal flooding and erosion need to be carefully managed by local authorities in order to limit damage to the coastal infrastructure and to protect human life, habitats, and sensitive species. This issue is usually tackled through common and shared approaches at the regional scale. Nevertheless, when the analysis must be carried out at the national scale, it is necessary to select a suitable dataset. This must be consistent with the whole application area concerning its spatial distribution, reliability, and availability. The aim of the paper is to perform a comparative analysis, using data available at the national and local scale, to highlight the sensitivity of the coastal hazard and vulnerability assessment. The microtidal and dissipative coastal stretches of Montalto di Castro (Tyrrhenian Sea) are used in this case study. Datasets with different spatial resolutions are then used. The results revealed that the use of low-resolution data leads to the overestimation of vulnerability and to the underestimation of hazard.

Message from the Authors

Many years have come and gone since the JMSE published its first issue. Thanks to the great efforts of the editorial office, the editorial board, and a plethora of excellent authors and reviewers, JMSE is now one of the most respected journals in the field of marine science and engineering. We are so proud to receive 3rd prize in the JMSE 2019 Highly Cited Paper Awards.

These three outstanding papers represent some of the most valuable contributions that JMSE has received to date. On behalf of the Editorial Board and Editorial Office, we would like to congratulate these three teams for their excellent work.