Mangrove forests’ restoration has gained traction as a sustainable solution to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and to provide ecosystem services, such as coastal protection. Restoration projects are often informed by expert judgment rather than a quantitative understanding and have a high failure rate. Monitoring mangrove restoration performance may take decades and has a strong case study dependency. To optimise restoration strategies, we developed an individual-based mangrove and process-based hydro-morphodynamic model to simulate multi-species mangrove forest trajectories, including the physical environment’s feedback. We find a significant impact of planting zonation on the mudflat behaviour, with seaward erosion and in-forest-landward deposition. Planting mangroves close to mean sea level decreases carbon storage potential due to increased mudflat erosion. Configuring planting in multiple patches proves beneficial to mangrove biomass development, expansion, and sediment accumulation. Combined with sound monitoring, the developed tool can potentially optimize planned mangrove restoration strategies.

The Wadaslintang Dam in Central Java Province is a crucial water storage structure with benefits like irrigation, hydropower, and flood control, which is densely populated downstream. However, the risk of dam failure requires an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to mitigate flood disasters. The implementation and effectiveness of an Emergency Action Plan protects human lives, help safeguard critical infrastructure, supports economic stability, and fosters community resilience in the face of various emergencies and disasters. This study aims to identify potential risks and consequences associated with the failure of the Wadaslintang dam and its correlation with the EAP. The plan outlines specific steps and procedures to be taken in the event of a dam failure, considering the potential risks and impacts of such an incident and collecting topographic and population data to create evacuation route maps. In conclusion, the EAP for Wadaslintang Dam is essential to minimize risks and protect the affected population during flood disasters. By implementing the plan, coordinating agencies, and ensuring regular updates, the safety and well-being of the population can be safeguarded.

As climate-change-driven extremes potentially make coastal areas more vulnerable, mangroves can help sustainably protect the coasts. There is a substantial understanding of both mangrove dynamics and hydro-morphodynamic processes. However, the knowledge of complex eco-geomorphic interactions with physical-environmental stressors remains lacking. We introduce a novel coupled modelling approach consisting of an individual-based mangrove (mesoFON) and a process-based hydromorphodynamic model (Delft3D-FM). This coupled model is unique because it resolves spatiotemporal processes, including tidal, seasonal, and decadal environmental changes (water level, flow, sediment availability, and salinity) with full life-stages (propagule, seedling, sapling, mature) mangrove interaction. It allows us to mechanistically simulate forest expansion, retreat, and colonisation influenced by and with feedback on physical-environmental drivers. The model is applied in a schematized mixed fluvial-tidal deltaic mangrove forest in dominantly muddy sediment inspired by the prograding delta of Porong, Indonesia. Model results successfully reproduce observed mangrove extent development, age-height relationship, and morphodynamic delta features.

This article presents a novel approach to explore mangrove dynamics on a prograding delta by integrating unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and satellite imagery. The Porong Delta in Indonesia has a unique geographical setting with rapid delta development and expansion of the mangrove belt. This is due to an unprecedented mud load from the LUSI mud volcanic eruption. The mangrove dynamics analysis combines UAV-based Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry and 11 years (2009–2019) satellite imagery cloud computing analysis by Google Earth Engine (GEE). Our analysis shows unique, high-spatiotemporal-resolution mangrove extent maps. The SfM pho-togrammetry analysis leads to a 3D representation of the mangrove canopy and an estimate of mangrove biophysical properties with accurate height and individual position of the mangroves stand. GEE derived vegetation indices resulted in high (three-monthly) resolution mangrove coverage dynamics over 11 years (2009–2019), yielding a value of more than 98% for the overall, producer and consumer accuracy. Combining the satellite-derived age maps and the UAV-derived spatial tree structure allowed us to monitor the mangrove dynamics on a rapidly prograding delta along with its structural attributes. This analysis is of essential value to ecologists, coastal managers, and poli-cymakers.

Quantitative assessment for sustainable watershed management is essential. Hydrological parameters such as stream discharge, surface runoff, infiltration, groundwater recharge, and water quality are susceptible to the changes of the components in the river basin ecosystem. Numerous studies have shown that the Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes such as deforestation, extensive agriculture, urbanization, and mining are recognized as the main factors to changes in LULC, which are related to the changes of the hydrological components of the river basin of all scale. This paper particularly shows the spatiotemporal variability of LULC in the Upper Brantas Basin and the effects on the river discharge variation. We showed that the changes in LULC, particularly cultivated and managed vegetation and urban/built-up area, contributed significantly to the river discharge. Particularly in the Upper Brantas Basin, it was indicated that almost half of the increased river discharge was explained by the increase of urban/built-up and the decrease in cultivated and managed vegetation area.

Accurate and repetitive observation and quantification of the shoreline position and the coastal feature are essential aspects of coastal management and planning. Commonly, the dataset associated with coastal observation and quantification is obtained with in-situ coastal surveys. The current methods are mostly quite expensive, time-consuming, and require trained individuals to do the task. With the availability of the off-the-shelf low cost, lightweight, and reliable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with the advances of the algorithms such as structure-from-motion (SfM), UAV-based measurement becomes a promising tool. Open SfM initiative, open topographical database, and UAV communities are the enablers that make it possible to collect accurate and frequent coastal monitoring and democratize data. This paper provides a review and discussions that highlight the possibility of conducting scientific coastal monitoring or collaborating with the public. Literature was examined for the advances in coastal monitoring, challenges, and recommendations. We identified and proposed the use of UAV along with the strategies and systems to encourage citizen-led UAV observation for coastal monitoring while attaining the quality.