The Coastal Zone in the Anthropocene: Understanding and Reducing the Risks for the Ocean

Dear Colleagues,

The human presence in the coastal environment is increasing rapidly, accompanied by an equally rapid growth in the built environment and consumer goods in the coastal zone. An increasing fraction of the urban population is in megacities that are located in the coastal zone or in the flood plains of major rivers. The urbanization of the coastal zone is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. At the same time, the coastal zone is exposed to a changing spectrum of natural hazards originating in the atmosphere–ocean and terrestrial systems. The way coastal urban areas are developed today creates a risk with potentially significant harmful impacts for future generation. This risk could be reduced through new designs of the urban coasts that ensure the built environment is adapted to the changing spectrum of hazards and through international rules for the abandonment of urban coasts that can no longer be defended against sea encroachment. This would help to bring current actions in line with normative ethics and reduce threats to the marine biosphere and future human generations. We invite papers that address all aspects of the threats the urban coast might pose to the ocean, including the development of the urban coast, the changing coastal hazard spectrum, the risk of marine debris originating in the urban coast, the impacts this debris might have on the marine biosphere, alternatives for the design of the urban coast that would reduce this risk, and ethical challenges in governing risks to future generations in designing today’s urban coast.

Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Plag
Dr. Rene Garello
Dr. Michèle Barbier
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. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 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.