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The purpose of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis between Aveiro's Lagoon (Portugal) and Sepetiba Bay (Brazil), in order to understand the similarities and differences between these two coastal zones, in terms of human occupation.

This paper is supported by works (papers and scientific projects being developed) produced in Portugal and Brazil, by researchers from different areas of expertise.

These two coastal zones have a similar geomorphologic evolution, due to the fact that both appeared because of a sandy spit, which started to grow and separated these areas from the sea, converting them into sheltered coasts. It was because they are protected that these two study cases early became targets for human occupation. The anthropic impacts in the systems were sustainable until the middle of the twentieth century. Since then, however, the economic development options, based first in industry and second in tourism exploration, have compromised the natural healthy balance.

This paper could be a contribution to a scientific support for political decisions on the coastal zone management (namely in these studied areas).

The paper provides and increases the knowledge of the coastal zones’ evolution and occupation – from a multidisciplinary perspective – produced and made available to scientists, local politicians, students and local populations.

The paper provides a truly interdisciplinary approach, which allows a better understanding of the evolution of these two systems, discussing the causes and consequences of human activities in both coastal areas.

The main focus of this paper is on a study of environmental perceptions in the municipality of Aveiro, Portugal.

The study draws pn complaints regarding environmental matters submitted to the City Council and on a critical analysis of the results in comparison with the opinions of local government authorities and non‐governmental organisations, which have responsibilities for local environmental management, and experts.

The results reflect the local actors relevant to the protests, including, among these citizens and local authorities, the main concerns intrinsic to the complaints and questionnaire responses, such as those relating to urban solid waste, water, air pollution, noise and unhealthy lots; and the “preferential zones” in which environmental problems are most likely to generate complaints, more specifically the dense urban areas and, to a lesser extent, the classified natural areas, and the preferential zones for the occurrence of environmental problems in the opinion of the respondents, namely the hydrographical nets and associated margins and the rural or sparse areas. The respondents were also encouraged to identify measures required to solve the local environmental problems, revealing a great range of suggested procedures, from educational to coercive types.

There are few studies concerning complaints on environmental issues and a comparison of these data with the perceptions of local decision‐makers and experts offers a useful route to the characterisation and evaluation of local environmental concerns, identifying the most significant environmental problems within the study area. Proper management of this information can positively influence the decision‐making processes, allowing a more directed and efficient performance on the part of local government.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the relevance of citizen complaints as a new source of information for local environmental governance. It represents an initial attempt to construct a fresh approach to the field.

The paper comprises a brief literature review around the concept of environmental governance, the role played by institutions, and the challenges of local environmental governance; an empirical study of a Portuguese municipality based on environmental complaints submitted to its City Council and a comparative analysis between the results garnered from the empirical study and the areas of intervention in the Municipal Environmental Plan.

The results suggest that the information gathered from public complaints on environmental issues has the potential to reveal the most significant environmental problems from the standpoint of local actors. This knowledge is relevant for self‐evaluation by local authorities whilst remaining a promising avenue for local public participation in decision‐making processes.

The authors take the view that concerns raised by local populations are important, latent sources of information that can have a positive impact on delineating necessary action for the management and resolution of local environmental problems.

The development of models that allows the evaluation and prediction of erosion processes is an important tool for the management and planning of coastal systems. Mangrove forests systems are under threat by the impacts of erosion, which is also intensified by human activity (and aggravated in the scenarios of global warming and climate change). The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of geographic information systems (GIS) that can be used for any estuary area, but it can also be used for mangroves.

This paper uses georeferentiation which is defined as a set of parameters that best characterize the mangrove areas: elevation (m); geomorphology; geology; land cover; anthropogenic activities; distance to the coastline (m) and maximum tidal range (m). Three different methods are used to combine the various vulnerability parameters, namely, DRASTIC index, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and square root of the geometric mean.

The three approaches presented in this work show different types evaluating vulnerability to erosion, highlighting a stronger overvaluation of the areas presented with a high vulnerability, through the use of DRASTIC index when compared with two other approaches. The use of the AHP shows similarity to the square root of the geometric mean model, but the AHP also presents a higher percentage of vulnerable areas classified as having medium to very high vulnerability. On the other hand, the use of square root of the geometric mean led to a higher percentage of areas classified as having low and very low vulnerability.

These three qualitative models, based on a cognitive approach, using the set of parameters defined in this research, are a good tool for the spatial distribution of erosion in different mangroves in the world.

Global warming and climate change scenarios require adaptation and mitigation options supported by science-based strategies and solutions.

Environmental threats of immediate risk in areas such as coastal zones (CZ) have aroused new trends of citizenship and participatory democracy. The purpose of this paper is to analyse elements within those trends, such as environmental culture, socio‐political context, dynamics of social associative movement and integration of local knowledge. It also aims to contribute to an overview of the opportunities and barriers found in considering socio‐cultural and educational challenges in CZ.

In this analysis, case studies of integrated coastal management occurring worldwide were selected and reviewed, considering several nuances of socio‐economic and political contexts of CZ. Experiences of public response to coastal catastrophes such the Prestige oil spill in Spain, are also described.

Whether implementing sustainable coastal management through either balanced systems (between large and small‐scale strategies) or through largely bottom‐up approaches, participation is detected as one of the main factors for a successful integrated approach. Principles such as participatory governance and social justice should be adopted in initial phases of sustainable management processes and preferably involve all of the implied actors of CZ.

The literature reviewed highlighted specific factors that have empirically contributed to participatory sustainability of CZ, integrating three dimensions of citizenship: education, society's dynamics and culture.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate quick and low-cost processes for surface runoff potential on the basis of natural environmental attributes.

An approach based on the natural environmental attributes and on the Cook’s method was used for maximal peak flows of surface runoff, as well as for assigning weights to the considered attributes. Used attributes are as follow: steepness, bedrock (lithology), soil (texture, genesis, thickness, and permeability coefficient), drainage density, and favorable features to surface storage.

Using natural environmental attributes from previous available studies, adapted from different scales, the authors obtain a low-cost potential surface runoff chart, which can be useful for planning, impact and hazard analysis, and decision purposes in an area without large financial resources, like small communities in developing countries. Despite the common scarcity of data in these communities, often regional basic studies of soil and bedrock are available, making this kind of analysis possible.

The highlights are quick and low-cost procedures in characterizing the natural environment for planning activities, providing the basis for further detailing, which focus on solving local problems. This approach to runoff estimation allows for the definition of the criteria, considering the potential geodynamic processes. Thus, this kind of study may be very useful for land use planning in developing countries.

Estuaries and shallow coastal areas are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, being recognized as important nursery areas for marine fish. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the causes and consequences of recruitment variability in marine fish, contributing to ecosystem‐based management strategies of estuarine and coastal areas.

The authors conducted a literature review, exploring the role of estuaries as nursery areas for marine fish, and analyzed the connectivity between estuaries and coastal areas, the main processes driving recruitment variability in marine fish during their pelagic (larval) and estuarine residency (juveniles) phases, and how it can be translated into variable coastal stocks.

Recruitment variability in marine fish is still one of the most important issues in marine fisheries ecology. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the potential of several processes for inducing variability in recruitment, including density‐independent mechanisms such as temperature, hydrodynamics, river flow and large‐scale factors, as well as density‐dependent processes, related with food abundance, competition and predation. Lastly, the authors evaluated the connectivity between estuaries and the ocean, and how this relationship can influence coastal stocks in the future. The main findings were analyzed in the context of climate change, which has been demonstrated to influence marine life at the individual, population and ecosystem levels.

This paper is a valuable tool for marine researchers and stakeholders, since it summarizes some of the most important processes that drive recruitment variability in marine fish, and how this information can be used for establishing sustainable ecosystem management programmes.