The sea level rise under global climate change and coastal floods caused by extreme sea levels due to the high tide levels and storm surges have huge impacts on coastal society, economy, and natural environment. It has drawn great attention from global scientific researchers. This study examines the definitions and elements of coastal flooding in the general and narrow senses, and mainly focuses on the components of coastal flooding in the narrow sense. Based on the natural disaster system theory, the review systematically summarizes the progress of coastal flood research in China, and then discusses existing problems in present studies and provide future research directions with regard to this issue. It is proposed that future studies need to strengthen research on adapting to climate change in coastal areas, including studies on the risk of multi- hazards and uncertainties of hazard impacts under climate change, risk assessment of key exposure (critical infrastructure) in coastal hotspots, and cost-benefit analysis of adaptation and mitigation measures in coastal areas. Efforts to improve the resilience of coastal areas under climate change should be given more attention. The research community also should establish the mechanism of data sharing among disciplines to meet the needs of future risk assessments, so that coastal issues can be more comprehensively, systematically, and dynamically studied.

It increased the demands on ground-water supplies that prolonged drought and improper maintenance of water resources. So it is necessary to evaluate ground-water resources in the hard rock terrain. In recent years, Remote-Sensing methods have been increasingly recognized as a means of obtaining crucial geoscientific data for both regional and site-specific investigations. This work aims to develop and apply integrated methods combining the information obtained by geo-hydrological field mapping and those obtained by analyzing multi-source remotely sensed data in a GIS environment for better understanding the Groundwater condition in hard rock terrain. In this study, digitally enhanced Landsat ETM+ data was used to extract information on geology, geomorphology. The Hill-Shading techniques are applied to SRTM DEM data to enhance terrain perspective views, and extract Geomorphological features and morphologically defined structures through the means of lineament analysis. A combination of Spectral information from Landsat ETM+ data plus spatial information from SRTM-DEM data is used to address the groundwater potential of alluvium, colluvium, and fractured crystalline rocks in the study area. The spatial distribution of groundwater potential zones shows regional patterns related to lithologies, lineaments, drainage systems, and landforms. High-yielding wells and springs are often related to large lineaments and corresponding structural features such as dykes. The results show that the combination of remote sensing, GIS, traditional fieldwork, and models provide a powerful tool for water resources assessment and management, and groundwater exploration planning.

Knowledge of the presence of heavy metals in soils of agricultural areas is important to prevent their accumulation in cultivated plants. The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the total concentrations and fractions of heavy metals Cd, Pb, Zn, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Cr and Co in the tobacco-growing area of Pinar del Río, Cuba and their relationship with the physicochemical properties of soil. For the study, 59 samples of three types of soils were collected at 20 cm depth. The pseudo-total concentrations of metals in the soils are low and lower than the prevention values registered for Cuban soils. In general, the heavy metals studied present a high affinity for the most stable fractions of the soil, which means a low risk of transfer to the tobacco crop or accumulation in groundwater. The pseudo-total concentrations of heavy metals were low, below the alert values established for soils in the region. The heavy metals studied were mainly associated with the residual fraction, the second fraction with the highest association with metals was that linked to manganese and iron oxides. The principal component analysis showed that their main source is pedogenetic and that these elements are closely related to cation exchange capacity and calcium content.

The national park with Chinese characteristics is the highest level of protection of a kind of natural protection, its establishment marks the park will implement the strictest ecological protection means. It is of great value to construct the utilization system of national park resources under the new natural protected area system in the new era to avoid the misunderstanding of “ecological protection only” and explore how to carry out the sustainable utilization of resources in the reform of national park system and mechanism. According to the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Delphi method, the evaluation framework, indicators, reference standards and weights of resource utilization under the national park system were determined in combination with the requirements of constructing the protected natural area system and the total value of resource ecosystem services (including harvest value, existence value and future value). Based on the application research of Bawangling zone of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, the optimal resource utilization system in the future was proposed, and two optimization strategies of ecological adjustment of resource utilization system and construction of suitable resource utilization system were put forward.

Flood risk analysis is the instrument by which floodplain and stormwater utility managers create strategic adaptation plans to reduce the likelihood of flood damages in their communities, but there is a need to develop a screening tool to analyze watersheds and identify areas that should be targeted and prioritized for mitigation measures. The authors developed a screening tool that combines readily available data on topography, groundwater, surface water, tidal information for coastal communities, soils, land use, and precipitation data. Using the outputs of the screening tool for various design storms, a means to identify and prioritize improvements to be funded with scarce capital funds was developed, which combines the likelihood of flooding from the screening tool with a consequence of flooding assessment based on land use and parcel size. This framework appears to be viable across cities that may be inundated with water due to sea-level rise, rainfall, runoff upstream, and other natural events. The framework was applied to two communities using the 1-day 100-year storm event: one in southeast Broward County with an existing capital plan and one inland community with no capital plan.