New Approach to Assess Multi-Scale Coastal Landscape Vulnerability to Erosion in Tropical Storms in Vietnam

Suitability of bamboo to the ecological conditions in Ba Be district, Bac Kan province, Vietnam

In Vietnamese culture, bamboo holds deep symbolic significance. However, in recent years, as a result of evolving usage patterns and the introduction of alternative materials in the face of a rapidly developing modern market economy, industrialisation, and urbanisation, bamboo's economic and social value has dwindled. Nevertheless, with the pressing challenges of climate change, environmental pollution, and the depletion of natural resources, bamboo is experiencing a resurgence in importance within the lives of Vietnamese people. Ba Be district, situated in Bac Kan province, stands as one of the country's most impoverished regions. Natural bamboo thrives in 14 out of 15 communes, with Dong Phuc commune being the exception. Planted bamboo is found in 14 out of 15 communes, excluding Cho Ra town, covering approximately 7.9 % of the entire district's natural area (NA). The district's vast terrain, featuring slopes exceeding 15°, presents formidable obstacles to socio-economic development. This study aims to shed light on the distribution of bamboo forests in Ba Be district and presents an assessment of bamboo's suitability within its natural surroundings. The study employs the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method and spatial statistics, using remote sensing data supplied by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Ba Be district. The results demonstrate that 60 % of Ba Be district's NA is conducive to bamboo cultivation and growth. The findings of this research provide local authorities with a scientifically grounded basis for strategic planning, enabling bamboo to emerge as a pivotal resource within production forests. This approach outlines the ideal spatial distribution for bamboo cultivation and development, ultimately fostering the sustainable utilisation of local natural resources to support both immediate and long-term local socio-economic development.

Assessment of the Vulnerability of the Lucana Coastal Zones (South Italy) to Natural Hazards

Coasts are highly dynamic and geo-morphologically complex systems that are exposed to several factors such as waves, extreme meteorological events and climate change. It is also well-recognized that coastal zones, characterized by an increasing population growth, are vulnerable to climate change. In addition, coastal erosion, resulting from natural environment changes and human activities, acts worldwide. Consequently, it is necessary to quantify coastal hazards vulnerability and develop tools to monitor coastal risks and support making targeted climate adaptation policies. In this paper, a framework to estimate coastal vulnerability to flooding and erosion has been developed for the Ionian Basilicata coast. It is based on two methods: the integrated vulnerability index (flooding and erosion) and the CeD physical vulnerability index (multi-risk assessment). Our results are in agreement with the recent shoreline evolution: the integrated coastal risk of the Ionian Basilicata coast is generally medium to high, while the “physical erosion vulnerability” is generally high to very high. In addition, the results highlight a spatial variability of the vulnerability, probably due to the morphology of the beach, which requires developing a strategic approach to coastal management and defining mitigation measures, considering relevant risk aspects as the vulnerability and exposure degree.

Characterizing global satellite-based indicators for coastal vulnerability to erosion management as exemplified by a regional level analysis from Northeast Brazil

The detection of coastal vulnerability to erosion is crucial for decision-making regarding the economy, ecology, health, security, among other issues. Most of the studies gather a large data set about physical and anthropogenic interference's on the vulnerability of coastal erosion regions around the world. However, for developing nations like Brazil, with extensive shoreline, it is challenging to develop and maintain an in situ infrastructure to offer a systematical scientific data set. In this context, several methods like Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) for monitoring the dynamic behavior of coastal systems require in situ collected data. Therefore, this contribution explores the use of global open source satellite-based indicators to assess coastal vulnerability to erosion at a regional level adopting an uncorrelated orthogonal basis set of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For this, the data set covers many spheres of the environment like biophysical and social factors, adopting the Pernambuco State's coast, Brazil, as a case study. The results showed the direct relationship between a high level of urbanization and low vegetation with the high coastal vulnerability to erosion. PC1 revealed built-up and surface temperature vary inversely to the soil organic carbon and vegetation cover along about 20 km (≈10% of the shoreline extension). The hotspots were in the urban cluster (Paulista, Olinda, Recife, and Jaboatao dos Guararapes), combined with high shoreline change around -2 m/yr. PC2 showed the natural action of wind on wave heights combined with sediment removal and the backshore settlement along 10 km of extension (≈5.5% of the shoreline), with the highly vulnerable sites concentrated in Itamaraca Island and C. S. Agostinho. This approach benefits from the multi-satellite and multi-resolution data sets integration to unravel the statistical influence of each variable able to guide stakeholders.