Advances in sandy beach research – Local and global perspectives

Sandy beaches are increasingly being considered as social-ecological systems (SES). This implies the consideration of specific sets of proximate and distal drivers acting on them. Hence, ecological and social features as well as their interaction need to be identified, quantified and modeled in order to enable stakeholders and decision-makers to achieve a science-based vision of such a complex system. The urgent demand for integration and multidisciplinarity is therefore an open challenge for all those working on the topic. Information from different disciplines, if considered as part of a holistic perspective as the one required by the approach to SES, maximises its impact and opens new perspectives. A range of dimensions, from local scale to macroareas, still need to be tested to identify the most suitable scale for the observation and depiction of phenomena and trends. Many open challenges then, are awaiting to be taken.