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The study aims to promote independent mobility for persons with visual impairment or legal blindness (VIB) by developing a Web-based wayfinding application using geographic information systems (GIS). While the literature mainly focuses on technical devices presenting results for wayfinding, a lack of integration of user needs is identified. The inclusive, participative developed application offers step-by-step directions for pre-trip planning through an accessible user interface.

The paper presents a semi-automated approach to extract a pedestrian routing network data set based on open government data and field survey. User profiles calculate different routes using a weighting scheme for landmarks, orientation hints, infrastructure of crossings and sidewalks. The adoption of ArcGIS Web AppBuilder widgets allows access of the user interface additionally through keyboard-only navigation and therefore screen-reader capability.

GIS offers a powerful tool to design network analysis for persons with VIB. The routing algorithm accesses different user profiles, returning individualized turn-by-turn directions. The complex set of attributes, including shorelines, landmarks and barriers, can be integrated by semi-automated processes.

The paper illustrates the benefit of GIS applications for wayfinding of persons with VIB to raise self-determination and independence.

A ubiquitous pedestrian sidewalk network for a medium-size city comprises a novelty, as research has mainly focused on small areas. The integration of shorelines next to a various number of hints, landmarks and potential barriers through semi-automated processes allows reproducibility and transferability of the model to other cities.

To provide data on the tsunami hazard of the Mediterranean region, to outline the Maltese Islands specific tsunami risks.

The physics of tsunami and the tsunami magnitude scales are first introduced. The Mediterranean tsunami characteristics are introduced by reference to sources (1962‐2003). Following this the Mediterranean tsunami vulnerability assessment is undertaken. This then narrows down to assessing the Maltese tsunami hazards with reference to various newspaper articles, with finally a risk assessment for Malta tsunami exposure calculated.

Considering the high loss of life occurring in the Indian Ocean catastrophic tsunami, tsunami awareness hazards are to be kept ongoing whilst Malta should form part of an expected European Tsunami Warning System.

Planning is to consider various options available including tsunami barriers, evacuation paths, buildings with vertical evacuation facilities. It would be more prudent to work with nature by moving all inessential structures further into the interior and to protect the shoreline with suitable vegetation.

Creates a Mediterranean/Maltese awareness to tsunami hazards/risks in a highly developed tourist region.

This paper compares the gamma‐radioactivity values determined in an intertidal ecosystem on the Atlantic island of Barra in the Western Isles of Scotland in 1989 and 1994. Distinct differences in the accumulation values in different trophic levels were detected on each occasion, but, in the intervening five years between surveys, there have also been marked reductions in the gamma counts in many different organisms of each trophic level. Gamma‐radioactivity has continued to move through the sandy soils of the machair coastal dunes system, and hence away from the rooting zone of the vegetation. The decreasing gamma‐radioactivities noted point to a shoreline ecosystem that is recovering from the input of Chernobyl fallout.

Tsunamis are a rare but devastating form of natural disaster that has been documented since early civilization. Throughout history, many major tsunamis have impacted on the world's coastlines, causing heavy loss of lives and damage to properties. While the Sumatran tsunami in December 2004 demonstrated the sheer scale of destruction, there remains little understanding of the implications such obliteration have for disaster planning and management in the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to raise the awareness of these implications and address some of the pertinent issues.

The threat from tsunamis for an island state like Singapore cannot be ignored. A general study of tsunami dynamics is carried out and applied to model the worst scenario if tsunamis were to hit Singapore. Unique problems relating to such a scenario are subsequently highlighted to extrapolate an understanding of how the construction industry should now react even before the disaster strikes.

There appear to be some potential danger and immense uncertainties to the immediate coastline of Singapore in the event of a tsunami. Faced with these uncertainties, the local construction industry needs to recognise such challenges and develop appropriate policies and strategies way ahead to account for disaster planning and management.

While tsunami warning systems have been put in place, tsunamis cannot be stopped. The construction industry has a significant role to play in minimising destruction through appropriate building codes, materials, designs, enforcement and preventive maintenance of infrastructure.

The paper raises the issues of disaster planning and management caused by tsunamis and prompts the construction industry into taking appropriate and timely action to ward off what can be an extremely threatening event to both lives and properties.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is possible to identify a number of physical design properties of plots that are associated with coastal alteration and to develop a predictive model or metric to evaluate the potential alteration caused by that resort. Investors may have economic plot size concerns not considered by planners, tourists may prefer close proximity to deep waters, and urban planners may have failed to realize the importance of certain plot ratios or minimum dimensions etc.

A combination of geographical information system and statistical tools is used to identify and model these properties. The research uses data from three different resorts in two countries along the Red Sea coast (Hurghada and Safaga in Egypt and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia). Landsat TM7 images are obtained for each location and analysed to detect regions with the largest alteration along the coast using the post‐classification change technique. Physical properties of each village are generated using ArcGIS 9.2 both before and after alteration. Finally, a predictive decision‐support tool for urban planners and environmental auditors is formulated using stepwise discriminant analysis.

Two‐step cluster analysis and discriminate analysis show that alteration takes place based on factors that include original width and original distance to deep water in three distinct groups. The predictive model that is developed classifies any given resort into one of three clusters, by virtue of their physical design characteristics. This gives a rough prediction of the likely alteration that might take place under a given condition. Subdivision plans that ignore the power of these two factors literally “invite” owners to violate shorelines and encroach on the sea. Planners are urged to join hands with policy makers and developers to formulate guidelines to plot subdivision and environmentally acceptable design solutions to facilitate access to deep water.

Till now, there has been no metric to relate a plot's geometric properties with the encroachment it makes. If such an association could be made, a developer's resort plans may be evaluated to predict the degree by which an encroachment is likely. The model can be used to identify resorts whose properties present a risk to shorelines, dredge or fill to maximize usable land. Two benefits may be thought of for this approach. First, the model helps urban planners develop a sustainable coastal area by bearing in mind the needs of tourist‐developers as well as the properties of their adjacent coast. Second, the factors can be used to rationalize building guidelines and land use regulations to minimize such risk.

Climate change is a global threat to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. In an increasingly urbanized world, homeowners play an important role in climate adaptation and environmental sustainability through decisions to landscape and manage their residential properties.

In this chapter, we review the potential impacts of climate change on environmental sustainability in urban ecosystems and highlight the role of urban and suburban residents in conserving biodiversity. We focus extensively on the interactions of homeowners and residential landscapes in urban coastal and desert environments.

Understanding how human-environment interactions are linked with a changing climate is especially relevant for coastal and desert cities in the United States, which are already experiencing visible impacts of climate change. In fact, many homeowners are already making decisions in response to environmental change, and these decisions will ultimately shape the future structure, function and sustainability of these critically important ecosystems.

Considering the close relationship between biodiversity and the health and well-being of human societies, understanding how climate change and other social motivations affect the landscaping decisions of urban residents will be critical for predicting and enhancing sustainability in these social-ecological systems.

Coastal sections suffering from erosion generally show the common symptom of a lack of available sand to allow the build up of the natural coastal barrier. Soft methods of coastal protection, including beach nourishment, profile nourishment, feeder berms, compensation‐dredging, aim to tackle the problem at its source, i.e. by supplying sand to the system. When thoroughly designed, these methods are considered the best technical/economical and appropriate solutions.

Coastal access has been, and continues to be, a controversial issue with both beachgoers and adjoining property owners having equally compelling legal rights to use and enjoy the shore. Federal, state and local governments have tried to provide for the high demand for recreational coastal access while accommodating the shorefront property owners through legislation, regulation, land use planning programs, and technical assistance. Budget cuts and reduction of resources experienced by most governments require that they create or adapt low cost and effective public access programs. This selective annotated bibliography highlights a variety of resources that describe or advocate successful public coastal access policies and programs which may be utilized by government entities or other public policy making bodies in implementing their own access programs.