Many studies have argued that a better understanding of people’s preferences about public urban green spaces may inform urban planners to effectively provide and manage urban green spaces to meet users’ needs. The aim of this study is to examine urban residents preferred public green space characteristics and investigate whether similarities and differences can be highlighted in three different Portuguese cities. Through a web-based questionnaire based on the best-worst scaling (BWS) method, residents of Lisbon, Porto and Évora (n = 750) were asked to select the most and least important public green space characteristic among thirteen attributes. The results suggest a consensus about some green space characteristics across cities but also the existence of some local variations in city residents’ preferences. Overall, this study can support public authorities and urban planners as they strive to effectively design and manage urban green spaces to meet users’ needs.

The world has a long record of shoreline and related erosion problems due to the impacts of climate change/variability in sea level rise. This has made coastal systems and large inland water environments vulnerable, thereby activating research concern globally. This study is a bibliometric analysis of the global scientific production of data sources and tools for shoreline change analysis and detection. The bibliometric mapping method (bibliometric R and VOSviewer package) was utilized to analyze 1578 scientific documents (1968–2022) retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science databases. There is a chance that in the selection process one or more important scientific papers might be omitted due to the selection criteria. Thus, there could be a bias in the present results due to the search criteria here employed. The results revealed that the U.S.A. is the country with the most scientific production (16.9%) on the subject. Again, more country collaborations exist among the developed countries compared with the developing countries. The results further revealed that tools for shoreline change analysis have changed from a simple beach transect (0.1%) to the utilization of geospatial tools such as DSAS (14.6%), ArcGIS/ArcMap (13.8%), and, currently, machine learning (5.1%). Considering the benefits of these geospatial tools, and machine learning in particular, more utilization is essential to the continuous growth of the field. Found research gaps were mostly addressed by the researchers themselves or addressed in other studies, while others have still not been addressed, especially the ones emerged from the recent work. For instance, the one on insights for reef restoration projects focused on erosion mitigation and designing artificial reefs in microtidal sandy beaches.

Shoreline change and coastal erosion resulting from natural events such as sea level rise and negative anthropogenic activities continue to be problems in many of the world’s coastal regions. Many coastal socio-ecological systems have become vulnerable as a result, especially in developing countries with less adaptive capacity. We utilized the systematic method to understand the research progress and policy recommendations on shoreline change and coastal erosion in West Africa. A total of 113 documents were retrieved from Scopus and the Web of Sciences databases, and 43 documents were eligible following established criteria. It was revealed that research on shoreline change and coastal erosion has progressed substantially since 1998, with most research studies originating from the Ghanaian territory. Again, most of the shoreline change and erosion problems in West Africa result from natural events such as sea level rise. However, there was evidence of anthropogenic influences such as sand mining, dam construction, and human encroachment causing shoreline change and erosion in the region. Research in the region has also progressed in terms of methodological approaches. Since 2004, researchers have utilized remote sensing and GIS techniques to source and analyze shoreline change and erosion. However, a combination of remote sensing and field observation approaches is required to clearly depict the erosion problems and aid policy direction. The overall call to action regarding policy recommendations revolves around improving coastal adaptation measures and the resilience of communities, instituting proper coastal zone management plans, and improving shoreline change and coastal erosion research. To protect lives and property, policymakers in the region need to set up good coastal zone management plans, strengthen adaptation measures, and make coastal communities more resistant to possible risks.