Abstract

With increasing threats from climate change and direct human impacts to coastal systems, vulnerability assessment approaches have been developed to enable prioritisation of management actions. This study reviewed vulnerability assessment literature about saltmarsh, beach and mixed shoreline systems published in English. Literature searches and NVivo software were used to analyse literature available, indicative of patterns and gaps in research. Results showed thirteen different methods used in selected literature to assess vulnerability, and the most commonly used was the indices approach. In saltmarsh systems, most articles employed unique methods rather than repeating established ones, and spatial change methods were rare. The majority of research did not include definitions of vulnerability or an indication of which conceptualisation of vulnerability was being used. Most literature assessed vulnerability to climate change and sea level rise, rather than natural hazards or other human impacts. The mangrove vulnerability assessment literature was far more voluminous relative to applications to beach, saltmarsh or mixed such systems. This review identifies how future research can better assess gaps in knowledge, and progress more unified understanding of coastal vulnerability.

中文翻译：

---

盐沼、海滩和混合海岸线系统脆弱性评估应用回顾

摘要

随着气候变化和人类对沿海系统的直接影响的威胁日益增加，脆弱性评估方法已被开发出来，以便确定管理行动的优先顺序。本研究回顾了以英文发表的关于盐沼、海滩和混合海岸线系统的脆弱性评估文献。使用文献检索和 NVivo 软件来分析现有文献，表明研究中的模式和差距。结果显示，选定的文献中使用了 13 种不同的方法来评估脆弱性，最常用的是指数方法。在盐沼系统中，大多数文章采用独特的方法而不是重复已有的方法，空间变化方法很少见。大多数研究不包括脆弱性的定义或表明正在使用哪种脆弱性概念。大多数文献评估了气候变化和海平面上升的脆弱性，而不是自然灾害或其他人类影响。相对于海滩、盐沼或混合此类系统的应用，红树林脆弱性评估文献的数量要大得多。本综述确定了未来的研究如何更好地评估知识差距，并进一步促进对沿海脆弱性的更统一的理解。