Nature-based solutions to mitigate the impact of future climate change depend on restoring biological diversity and natural processes. Coastal foredunes represent most important flood barriers along coastlines worldwide, but their area has been squeezed dramatically because a continuing urbanization coastlines, especially in Europe. Dune development is steered by vegetation interaction with san...

Coastal restoration is often distrusted and, at best, implemented small scales, which hampers its potential for coastal adaptation. Present technical, economic and management barriers stem from sectoral poorly coordinated local interventions, are insufficiently monitored maintained, precluding the upscaling required to build up confidence in ecosystem restoration. The paper posits that there en...

Chile has an economy strongly based on the exploitation of its natural resources. Copper mining represents the main export monetary income, employing thousands of people all along the country. The Chilean Copper Corporation (CODELCO), El Salvador branch, has been the primary mining company, but it will be ending most of its activities by 201 1 unless copper prices stay at their record levels. B...

Coastal erosion of low latitude beaches frequently results in exposure of beachrock, layers of beach sand cemented in the subsurface by the intergranular precipitation of calcium carbonate. Exposed beachrock can have a profound impact on the event, seasonal, and long-term morphodynamics of a beach. The influence of beachrock on beach processes will largely depend on the extent and morphology of...

The Conservation Estate, administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC), contains areas of land of undetermined conservation value. These include coastal lands, obtained and managed by the Government of the day for other than conservation purposes. One such purpose was to stabilise coastal sand dunes where drifting sands presented a hazard to adjacent railway lines or roads. The Sand Drif...

Using satellite and aerial imagery of Australian waveand storm-prone coastal areas, investigate a variety of image segmentation/classification techniques in GIS and other application environments. During the investigation, establish: (i) the suitability of the techniques for reliable classification of imagery, for instance into sand, rock and mud substrates, (ii) whether they can be implemented...