Towards integrated modelling of Watershed-Coast System morphodynamics in a changing climate: A critical review and the path forward.

The term "Watershed-Coast System" refers to the entities consisting of watersheds and the areas adjacent to their outlets, where sediment delivery from rivers and natural streams plays a key role in the evolution of coastal morphology. Climate change implications in these complex systems are projected to extend from morphological to ecological and socio-economic ones, threatening ecosystems, cultural heritage, settlements, infrastructure and human life itself. Accordingly, the design of protection and adaptation measures that will enhance resilience against relevant hazards has emerged as an imperative need in both research and policy.

Towards a common oil spill risk assessment framework – Adapting ISO 31000 and addressing uncertainties.

Oil spills are a transnational problem, and establishing a common standard methodology for Oil Spill Risk Assessments (OSRAs) is thus paramount in order to protect marine environments and coastal communities. In this study we firstly identified the strengths and weaknesses of the OSRAs carried out in various parts of the globe. We then searched for a generic and recognized standard, i.

Towards improving the representation of beaching in oil spill models: a case study.

Oil-shoreline interaction (or "beaching" as commonly referred to in literature) is an issue of major concern in oil spill modeling, due to the significant environmental, social and economic importance of coastal areas. The present work studies the improvement of the representation of beaching brought by the introduction of the Oil Holding Capacity approach to estimate oil concentration on coast, along with new approaches for coast type assignment to shoreline segments and the calculation of permanent oil attachment to the coast. The above were tested for the Lebanon oil spill of 2006, using a modified version of the open-source oil spill model MEDSLIK-II.