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Megacities and Large Urban Agglomerations in the Coastal Zone: Interactions Between Atmosphere, Land, and Marine Ecosystems
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Megacities and Large Urban Agglomerations in the Coastal Zone: Interactions Between Atmosphere, Land, and Marine Ecosystems

Roland von Glasow, Tim Jickells, Alexander Baklanov, Gregory Carmichael, Tom Church, Laura Gallardo, Claire Hughes, Maria Kanakidou, Peter Liss, Laurence Mee, …
Ambio, Vol.42(1), pp.13-28
02/2013
DOI: 10.1007/s13280-012-0343-9
PMCID: PMC3547459
PMID: 23076973
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0343-9View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Megacities are not only important drivers for socio-economic development but also sources of environmental challenges. Many megacities and large urban agglomerations are located in the coastal zone where land, atmosphere, and ocean meet, posing multiple environmental challenges which we consider here. The atmospheric flow around megacities is complicated by urban heat island effects and topographic flows and sea breezes and influences air pollution and human health. The outflow of polluted air over the ocean perturbs biogeochemical processes. Contaminant inputs can damage downstream coastal zone ecosystem function and resources including fisheries, induce harmful algal blooms and feedback to the atmosphere via marine emissions. The scale of influence of megacities in the coastal zone is hundreds to thousands of kilometers in the atmosphere and tens to hundreds of kilometers in the ocean. We list research needs to further our understanding of coastal megacities with the ultimate aim to improve their environmental management.
Air pollution Coastal zone management Deposition Ecology Environment Environment, general Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology Environmental Management Harmful algal blooms Marine pollution Meteorology/Climatology Ozone Physical Geography

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