Since at least half of the world’s population resides and works within coastal land, the coastal zone processes and resource management is of great economic and social importance. One of the fundamental issues for coastal city planners, researchers, managers, and engineers is the coastal city land-use suitability. Land-use suitability is the ability of a given type of land to support a defined use. Rapid urbanization and consequent haphazard growth of cities result in deterioration of infrastructure facilities, loss of agricultural land, water bodies, open spaces, and many micro-climatic changes. Hence, accurate data on coastal city hazards are essential and valuable tools for coastal planning and management, sustainable coastal development, coastal environment conservation, selection of a site for coastal city structures, and coastal resources. In this investigation, the Delphi and Analytical Hierarchy Process (D-AHP) Hybrid model and Geographic Information System (GIS) technique for Coastal Land-Use Assessment (CLUA) are mapped to detect the most suitable and unsuitable areas in the Kuala Terengganu coastal zone. Furthermore, this research offered information not only on the present urban land-use trend and established amenity status in Kuala Terengganu, but also on the suitability of land for the potential establishment of urban facilities for improved urban planning and appropriate decision-making. Using the D-AHP Hybrid model and GIS tool for coastal city management is broadly practical for government, policymakers, and planners to appropriately strategize and plan for the future of coastal cities in Malaysia and other analog coastal cities around the world.

Climate change is regarded as a serious threat to both environment and humanity, and as a result, it has piqued worldwide attention in the twenty-first century. Natural hazards are expected to have major effects in the coastal cities of the globe. At the same time, about two-thirds of the world’s human population lives in the coastal margins. One of the fundamental issues for coastal city planners is the coastal cities’ environmental change. This paper presents the application of a model framework for the management and sustainable development of coastal cities under a changing climate in Kuala Terengganu Malaysia. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is performed in the Expert Choice software for coastal city hazard management. This approach enables decision-makers to evaluate and identify the relative priorities of vulnerability and hazard criteria and sub-criteria based on a set of preferences, criteria, and alternatives. This paper also presents a hierarchy erosion design applied in Kuala Terengganu to choose the important sustainable weights of criteria and sub-criteria as well as the zone as an alternative model.

Nutrient loading (notably nitrogen and phosphorus) to coastal oceans from food production, fossil fuel burning, aquaculture operations, and wastewater from humans, livestock, and industry has accelerated during the past decades, causing over-enrichment of nutrients, or eutrophication. Eutrophication degrades coastal water quality with two most common symptoms, hypoxia and harmful algal blooms, creating profound ecological and societal consequences such as biodiversity decline, seagrass loss, coral bleaching, fish kills and marine mammal mortalities, and human health threats. Such marine pollution symptoms have persisted although billions of dollars have been invested in both research and management as well as efforts of restorations in many developed countries. Consequently, we are still witnessing trends in the expansion of coastal eutrophication and hypoxia from developed regions into developing regions. Though the limited efficacy of mitigation witnessed so far suggests the complexity of the issue, we contend that closing the knowledge gaps in the causality between eutrophication and hypoxia is essential and crucial towards making science-and evidence-based policies. We recognize that the non-linear cause-effect relationship in coastal marine ecosystem degradation caused by multi-stressors is complex.The strength and synergistic effect of multiple driving forces of coastal eutrophication is dependent on regional geographic feature, economic development, and societal management, while the long-term trends of eutrophication and hypoxia are subject to the control of the trends in nutrient loadings and physical dynamics under a changing climate. This review also examines lessons from past eutrophication management practices, and advocates for a better, more efficient indexing system of coastal eutrophication and an advanced regional earth system modeling framework to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective policy and restoration actions.

The paper emphasises the potentials of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) to be adopted and implemented in Central Terengganu, referring to three districts, namely Kuala Nerus, Kuala Terengganu and Marang. The territorial waters of Terengganu Central are demarcated by the protected boundaries of the marine parks, namely Redang, Lang Tengah and Kapas Islands. These three marine park islands are major ecotourism destinations in Central Terengganu, but the development that has been carried out on the islands and areas surroundings their gateways in the mainland, to some extent, is not integrated and sustainable. The purpose of this study is to seek the answers to what extent the current and future development trends in Central Terengganu have addressed the multiple competing and conflicting uses related to socioeconomic development, marine/ocean governance and conservation. The qualitative techniques were used for analysis and a case study was used to understand the nature of government policies and management as well as the existing and future plans. To summarize, this study concluded that MSP is the best option for the Terengganu State Government to improve the management of coastal and marine resources for environmental sustainability and socio-economic planning in Central Terengganu.

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