Coastal Management: Global Challenges and Innovations

Prof. Dr. R. R. KRISHNAMURTHY is a Geologist specialized in the field of Satellite Remote Sensing Applications in Coastal Management. He has 27 years of teaching and research experience and has served in different capacities in Anna University, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and the University of Madras. He was an YSSP participant at the Advanced Computer Applications (ACA) Programme of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria, and served as Visiting Professor at the Inter-Graduate School Programme for Sustainable Development and Serviceable Societies (GSS), Kyoto University, Japan. As a recipient of the Environmental Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu, he has produced several end user-oriented, significant research outputs such as Climate Action Plan (CAP), Climate Disaster Resilience Index (CDRI) and Climate Disaster Recovery Process (CDRP) for Chennai, Tsunami Vulnerability Atlas for the Chennai coast, teaching tools for high school students on Disaster Management etc. As the Founding Principal of the University of Madras Constituent College in Nemmeli Village, East Coast Road, Kanchipuram District during 2011-2014, he successfully implemented the introduction of Disaster Education for rural coastal communities to enhance their resilience to disasters. His remarkable research accomplishments include participation and contributions in India’s ambitious National Programmes on Marine Satellite Remote Sensing Information Service (MARSIS) and the Establishment of India’s Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges. Based on his expertise in this domain, he has closely interacted with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the National Disaster Management Authority, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Earth Sciences. His contributions under extension and outreach activities include (i) training of key decision-makers in India under the UK-DFID Programme on Coastal Management jointly with the Universities of Newcastle and Bath, UK and (ii) UNISDR, Geneva and the World Bank Institute, Washington DC, funded/supported programme on Building Resilience to Indian Ocean Tsunami, which aimed to train different target groups in India and the Maldives. In the aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, he has trained about one thousand school teachers in India and several field practitioners both in India and the Maldives.

Dr. M.P. Jonathan has proficient expertise in the fields of marine geochemistry and trace metal pollution of aquatic environments. He earned a doctorate in the field of geology from the University of Madras, Chennai, India. He is the author of more than 140 research articles on numerous multidisciplinary aspects of coastal pollution in reputed journals. With a wide vision to generate a database of the pollution status in tourist beaches all over the world, he has completed 10 countries till date and it is expanding year by year to other countries. He is a great teacher in orienting and inspiring young researchers to develop an urge for writing good scientific articles through his “Art of Scientific Writing” course. He has partaken in various bilateral and mega scientific research projects in India, Mexico, South Africa, Colombia, and Ecuador which deal with coastal pollution and development/mitigation efforts through mangroves. His research interests include geochemical process in aquatic systems, environmental geology, tsunami (past and present), microplastic degradation, fish toxicology, Geographic Information System (GIS) applications and innovative approaches in pollution studies. Presently, he works as a research professor and is also a Member of National System of Researchers (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores - SNI Level III) of the National Council for Humanities and Technological Sciences [Consejo Nacional de Humanidades Ciencias y Tecnologías (CONAHCYT)]. He also attests his abilities as the Coordinator of Doctorate program at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies on Environment and Development [Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (CIIEMAD)], National Polytechnic Institute [Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN)], Mexico City, Mexico. In addition, he acted an Executive Council Member (Consejo General Consultivo 2019-20) of IPN, Mexico City, Mexico. He is also an editorial committee member of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Journal (Springer Verlag) and Environmental Pollution (Elsevier) and is a member/reviewer of leading journals of Elsevier and Springer Verlag Publishers.

Professor Dr. S. Srinivasalu has more than 30 years of Teaching and research experience. His main research interest lies in Coastal Zone Management. He used coastal stratigraphy to study the recurrence interval of catastrophic coastal flooding events such as tsunami and large storms. His most significant contributions to the field include characterisation of modern tsunami storm deposits of south-eastern coast of India and western coast of Mexico, Assessment of Heavy metal concentrations in the coastal zones, Mapping of Coastal geomorphology of India, Mineral mapping of ICZM sites of India and Mapping of Ecological Sensitive areas of Tamil Nadu Coast. He is having more than 81 Publications in National and International Journals. His citation index is 1133 and h-index is 17. His i10-index is 28. He is an expert member of UNECO-IOC IOTWS programmes. He has guided 9 Ph.D students and more than 60 Post Graduate students. He is a member of many academic and management committees in India and abroad. He has visited 12 countries for various collaborative research programmes in the field of coastal management.

Bernhard Glaeser, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Free University of Berlin (Germany), with emphasis on environment and development and research projects in Europe, East Africa and Asia. He is the Honorary President of the German Society for Human Ecology (DGH), and retired as Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Göteborg (Sweden) and as Senior Researcher at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). Ever since 1996, his research focused on Integrated and Sustainable Coastal Management, with projects in Sweden, Germany, Poland, and Indonesia. He is LOICZ Corresponding Member (previously Scientific Steering Committee) and Corresponding Member of the IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research) Human Dimensions Working Group. He has served on multiple international advisory boards and is founder and editor of the book series “Routledge Studies in Environment, Culture, and Society” (RSECS, UK).