Coastal Urban Areas Research Articles

Tidal Flood Risk on Salt Farming: Evaluation of Post Events in the Northern Part of Java Using a Parametric Approach

Tidal flood risk threatens coastal urban areas and their agriculture and aquaculture, including salt farming. There is, therefore, an urgency to map and portray risk to reduce casualties and loss. In the floodplain of Cirebon, West Java, where salt farming dominates the landscape, this type of flooding has frequently occurred and disrupted the local economy. Based on two recorded events in 2016 and 2018 as benchmarks, this paper formulates an innovative approach to analyze tidal flood risk in salt farming areas. Our study considers the fundamental concepts of hazard and vulnerability, then uses selective parameters for evaluation in an Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP)-based Geographic Information System. The analytical process includes weighting criteria judged by experts and uses the resulting values to define the spatial characteristics of each salt parcel. Our high-resolution simulations show that the two flood events in 2016 and 2018 affected almost all salt production areas, particularly in the eastern, middle, and western parts of the Cirebon floodplain, although to very different degrees. The study also uses a physical-based approach to validate these results. The damage estimates show a strong positive correlation for economic loss (r = 0.81, r = 0.84). Finally, the study suggests that our multi-methods approach to assessing tidal flood risk should be considered in disaster mitigation planning and integrated coastal zone management in salt farming areas.

Urban Flood Inundation Simulation Based on High-Precision 3D Modeling

Kim, J.O. and Lee, J.K., 2021. Urban flood inundation simulation based on high-precision 3D modeling. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.-S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 454–458. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Flooding is a frequently occurring climate-related natural disaster that affects several people worldwide. In recent years, severe natural disasters have occurred due to unusual weather, and the damage caused by such disasters has increased significantly because of high population densities and the presence of large buildings in coastal urban areas. The spatial characteristics of urban floods are becoming more complex due to widespread changes in land use, such as in the construction of buildings, roads, and drainage networks. In particular, factors that affect urban flood modeling include the location and geometry of buildings. Hydrological models can adequately simulate both surface and subsurface processes at the watershed level; however, most models cannot accurately simulate urban flooding without 3D city modeling. A 3D simulation of computation results is thus necessary for practical applications. In recent years, flood simulation technology has been used to build 3D virtual environments based on data such as high definition (HD) maps, LiDAR point clouds, and drone images. The primary objective of this study was to develop and simulate an urban flood based on 3D city modeling. The 3D city model was tested for a coastal city in the Republic of Korea. Results of case studies indicate a reasonable match between the observed and modeled flood spatial extents and highlight the importance of considering 3D city models in urban flood simulations.

Analyzing the Impact of Building Wind in Coastal Areas

Kwon, Y.; Kim, J., and Kwon, S., 2021. Analyzing the impact of building wind in coastal areas. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 266–270. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Building wind causes a large amount of damage in coastal cities, where high-rise buildings are, typically, densely constructed. This paper describes the effects of building wind on coastal cities with a high concentration of highrise buildings under extreme weather conditions such as during typhoons. We performed simulations involving four wind directions (east, west, south, and north) at two sites, i.e., Marine City and LCT, which are well known as representative coastal urban areas in Busan, South Korea, with concentrated areas of high-rise buildings. We used a computational fluid dynamics program; a user-defined function was employed to simulate the wind environment during a typhoon. A contour analysis of the wind velocity indicated that the overall wind speeds increased by a factor of approximately two or more compared with the inflow data (25 m/s) when the wind passed between high-rise buildings. Generally, among the four wind directions, wind speeds were significantly enhanced when the north wind blew over both Marine City and LCT. The highest wind speed was observed at LCT when the west wind blew; however, the value was considerably local, with a significantly small contour area. Interestingly, the highest wind speed with a considerably local contour was observed near the tallest highrise building, supporting the hypothesis that wind speed increases rapidly downwind from the tallest building. As the height of the building increased, the downwind effect became stronger.

Transfer of Pollutants from Macrocystis pyrifera to Tetrapygus niger in a Highly Impacted Coastal Zone of Chile.

PAHs and heavy metals are characteristic pollutants in urbanized coastal areas, especially those with industrial activity. Given this context and the ability of Macrocystis pyrifera to drift when detached and provide trophic subsidy in coastal systems, we analyzed the potential transfer of pollutants to the herbivore Tetrapygus niger, through diet, in an industrialized coastal zone in Central Chile (Caleta Horcón) and characterized the impacted zone using diverse polluted ecotoxicological indices. For this purpose, a culture experiment was conducted where M. pyrifera individuals from Algarrobo (control site) were cultivated in Caleta Horcón and then used as food for T. niger. The contents of both PAHs and heavy metal contents were subsequently determined in algal tissue and sea urchin gonads as well as in the seawater. The results show that algae cultivated in Caleta Horcón had higher concentrations of naphthalene (NAF) compared to those from a low industrial impact zone (Algarrobo) (2.5 and 1.8 mg kg−1, respectively). The concentrations of Cu, As, and Cd were higher in Caleta Horcón than in Algarrobo in both M. pyrifera and T. niger. For all metals, including Pb, higher concentrations were present in T. niger than in M. pyrifera (between 5 and 798 times higher). Additionally, as indicated by the toxicological indices MPI (0.00804) and PLI (10.89), Caleta Horcón is highly contaminated with metals compared to Algarrobo (0.0006 and 0.015, respectively). Finally, the bioconcentration factor (BCF) and trophic transfer factor (TTF) values were greater than one in most cases, with values in Caleta Horcón exceeding those in Algarrobo by one or two orders of magnitude. This study provides evidence that Caleta Horcón is a highly impacted zone (HIZ) compared to Algarrobo, in addition to evidence that the biomagnification of certain pollutants, including the possible responses to contaminants, are apparently not exclusively transferred to T. niger through diet.

Cumulative building exposure to extreme sea level flooding in coastal urban areas

Global sea-level rise (SLR) is expected to increase the frequency of extreme sea level (ESL) flooding. Flood mitigation strategies often focus on reducing built-asset exposure to relatively infrequent but high magnitude ESL events, though frequent lower magnitude events in response to SLR could accumulate to be more costly for urban areas. We analyse this phenomenon for twenty major coastal urban areas in New Zealand by quantifying average annual building replacement value (AAERV) exposure within 1–10, 10–50 and 50–100-year ESL average recurrence interval (ARI) ranges, and for SLR of up to 2 m above present-day mean sea-level. We found that relatively smaller but more-frequent ESL flooding events in the 1–10-year ARI range contributed more than 80% of total building AAERV, for half of the urban areas in response to 0.3 m SLR, and nearly all urban areas after 1 m SLR. A Cumulative Hazard Index (CHI) showed positive CHI values in all but one urban area after 0.6 m SLR, indicating building exposure to ESL flooding is primarily driven more-frequent events, rather than larger but less-frequent events, as sea-levels rise. With projected sea-levels in the New Zealand region anticipated to reach 0.3 m in the next ∼25–50 years, this signals an urgent need for investigating future built-asset impacts from ESL flooding events.

Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in a Coastal Urban Environment: The Role of Sea Breezes, and Implications of Their Representation for Remote Sensing of Local Air Quality.

We present an analysis of sea breeze conditions for the Boston region and examine their impact on the concentration of local air pollutants over the past decade. Sea breezes occur about one‐third of the days during the summer and play an important role in the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of NO2 and O3 across the urban area. Mornings preceding a sea breeze are characterized by low horizontal wind speeds, low background O3, and an accumulation of local primary emissions. Air pollution is recirculated inland during sea breezes, frequently coinciding with the highest O3 measured at the urban center. We use “Ox” (= NO2 + O3) to account for temporary O3 suppression by NO and find large horizontal gradients (differences in Ox greater than 30 ppb across less than 15 km), which are not observed on otherwise westerly or easterly prevailing days. This implies a challenge in surface monitoring networks to adequately represent the spatial variability of secondary air pollution in coastal urban areas. We investigate satellite‐based climatologies of tropospheric NO2, and find evidence of selection biases due to cloud conditions, but show that sea breeze days are well observed due to the fair weather conditions generally associated with these events. The fine scale of the sea breeze in Boston is not reliably represented by meteorological reanalyses products commonly used in chemical transport models required to provide inputs for the satellite‐based retrievals. This implies a higher systematic error in the operational retrievals on sea breeze days compared to other days.

A Hotspot in the Romanian Black Sea: Eelgrass Beds Drive Local Biodiversity in Surrounding Bare Sediments

Ecosystem engineers create habitat and provide conditions otherwise unavailable for the development of diverse communities. In marine soft-bottoms in particular, the biodiversity sustained by a matrix of relatively uniform sediments can be drastically enhanced by the presence of ecosystem engineers such as seagrasses. Unfortunately, the influence of seagrass meadows on the diversity of surrounding sediments is often unrecognized in spite of its importance, especially in coastlines exposed to multiple sources of pollution. This study examined composition and diversity associated with a bed of Zostera noltei Hornemann, 1832, and its surrounding bare sediments in a highly urbanized coastal area of the Romanian Black Sea. Dissimilarity levels were quantified and key species driving the differences between uniform (bare) and complex (eelgrass) sedimentary habitats were identified. 48 taxa were collected and counted, with epifaunal and infaunal species each accounting for nearly half of that diversity. Abundance, richness and diversity were strikingly higher in eelgrass-associated sediments, a difference driven primarily by various species of snails, crustaceans, polychaetes and bivalves. Between-habitat differences remained significant even after the removal of epifaunal species and each dataset undergoing strong data transformation. These results suggest that even small eelgrass beds, located in the vicinity of multiple sources of stress, can act as hotspots and make a substantial contribution to local benthic diversity.

Citizens' Perception of Combined Sewer Overflow Spills into Bathing Coastal Areas

Once a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) exceeds its capacity, it is necessary to discharge a proportion of the flow to watercourses through combined sewer overflow (CSO) structures. In coastal urban areas, CSO spills may occur in seawaters. The present study analyses the effects of these spills into urban coastal bathing areas, through a qualitative survey-based analysis in Badalona and Barcelona, focusing on stakeholders' reputation and image involved in the sewer system and beaches management (i.e. intangible damages) and the consequences for the economy (i.e. tangible damages). The direct relation between CSO spills and impacts on restaurants’ revenues is not observed since business owners in Badalona and Barcelona do not perceive any economic impact due to these events. Their main concern is the municipality’s image, which might affect the citizens’ view of the management of the responsible agents and indirectly, the tourist sector, especially in Barcelona. Residents perception in this matter is remarkably different in both cities. In Badalona, residents know the problem and even the body responsible for setting the red flag and the beaches closure (i.e. the municipality). In Barcelona, though, residents are quite confused about this. The complexity in terms of competencies in sewer systems management requires a better communication campaign for the citizens to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary loss of trust in the City Council. Decision-makers and stakeholders should be interested in understanding the perception of affected users upon these events to take appropriate measures to enhance awareness programs or measures to reduce overflows.

Is the Jack Ma trajectory unique? Assessing the place-based hypothesis on entrepreneurial success

There is a widely-held belief that China’s high-performing entrepreneurs have been fueled by their transnational experience. Scholars have pointed to studying or working in the US, in particular, as a driver of their performance, while other researchers emphasize the ascent of place-based factors, such as the triple helix – the interaction of industry, government and academia – of leading cities as a bedrock for China’s entrepreneurship. In this paper, we examine the migration patterns of high-performing entrepreneurs, like Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, in order to test these competing hypotheses. To do so, we analyze the spatial mobility patterns of the founders of the Chinese high-growth companies that had raised at least US$1 billion in private equity funding as of March 2020. In contrast to the prevailing assumption that these high-performing entrepreneurs are returnees (e.g. Chinese entrepreneurs that lived abroad and returned to China), we find that, like Ma, this elite cohort are predominantly graduates with bachelor’s degrees from universities in urban coastal regions in China. Rather than transnational or location-based explanations, our findings point to sub-national migration patterns within China—to and within coastal urban areas—as more likely to drive entrepreneurial performance.

Exposure and dose assessment of school children to air pollutants in a tropical coastal-urban area

This study estimates exposure and inhaled dose to air pollutants of children residing in a tropical coastal-urban area in Southeast Brazil. For that, twenty-one children filled their time-activities diaries and wore the passive samplers to monitor NO2. The personal exposure was also estimated using data provided by the combination of WRF-Urban/GEOS-Chem/CMAQ models, and the nearby monitoring station. Indoor/outdoor ratios were used to consider the amount of time spent indoors by children in homes and schools. The model's performance was assessed by comparing the modelled data with concentrations measured by urban monitoring stations. A sensitivity analyses was also performed to evaluate the impact of the model's height on the air pollutant concentrations. The results showed that the mean children's personal exposure to NO2 predicted by the model (22.3 μg/m3) was nearly twice to those measured by the passive samplers (12.3 μg/m3). In contrast, the nearest urban monitoring station did not represent the personal exposure to NO2 (9.3 μg/m3), suggesting a bias in the quantification of previous epidemiological studies. The building effect parameterisation (BEP) together with the lowering of the model height enhanced the air pollutant concentrations and the exposure of children to air pollutants. With the use of the CMAQ model, exposure to O3, PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 was also estimated and revealed that the daily children's personal exposure was 13.4, 38.9, 32.9, and 9.6 μg/m3, respectively. Meanwhile, the potential inhalation daily dose was 570-667 μg for PM2.5, 684-789 μg for PM10, and 163-194 μg for PM1, showing to be favourable to cause adverse health effects. The exposure of children to air pollutants estimated by the numerical model in this work was comparable to other studies found in the literature, showing one of the advantages of using the modelling approach since some air pollutants are poorly spatially represented and/or are not routinely monitored by environmental agencies in many regions.

Cities on the Coast and Patterns of Movement between Population Growth and Diffusion.

Sea level rise and high-impact coastal hazards due to on-going and projected climate change dramatically affect many coastal urban areas worldwide, including those with the highest urbanization growth rates. To develop tailored coastal climate services that can inform decision makers on climate adaptation in coastal cities, a better understanding and modeling of multifaceted urban dynamics is important. We develop a coastal urban model family, where the population growth and urbanization rates are modeled in the framework of diffusion over the half-bounded and bounded domains, and apply the maximum entropy principle to the latter case. Population density distributions are derived analytically whenever possible. Steady-state wave solutions balancing the width of inhabited coastal zones, with the skewed distributions maximizing population entropy, might be responsible for the coastward migrations outstripping the demographic development of the hinterland. With appropriate modifications of boundary conditions, the developed family of diffusion models can describe coastal urban dynamics affected by climate change.

Compound flood potential from storm surge and heavy precipitation in coastal China: dependence, drivers, and impacts

Abstract. The interaction between storm surge and concurrent precipitation is poorly understood in many coastal regions. This paper investigates the potential compound effects from these two flooding drivers along the coast of China for the first time by using the most comprehensive records of storm surge and precipitation. Statistically significant dependence between flooding drivers exists at the majority of locations that are analysed, but the strength of the correlation varies spatially and temporally and depending on how extreme events are defined. In general, we find higher dependence at the south-eastern tide gauges (TGs) (latitude < 30∘ N) compared to the northern TGs. Seasonal variations in the dependence are also evident. Overall there are more sites with significant dependence in the tropical cyclone (TC) season, especially in the summer. Accounting for past sea level rise further increases the dependence between flooding drivers, and future sea level rise will hence likely lead to an increase in the frequency of compound events. We also find notable differences in the meteorological patterns associated with events where both drivers are extreme versus events where only one driver is extreme. Events with both extreme drivers at south-eastern TG sites are caused by low-pressure systems with similar characteristics across locations, including high precipitable water content (PWC) and strong winds that generate high storm surge. Based on historical disaster damages records of Hong Kong, events with both extreme drivers account for the vast majority of damages and casualties, compared to univariate flooding events, where only one flooding driver occurred. Given the large coastal population and low capacity of drainage systems in many Chinese urban coastal areas, these findings highlight the necessity to incorporate compound flooding and its potential changes in a warming climate into risk assessments, urban planning, and the design of coastal infrastructure and flood defences.

Is Living in a U.S. Coastal City Good for One's Health?

Background: Evidence suggests that living close to “blue spaces” (water features), particularly coastlines, has salutary effects on human health. Methods: We analyzed five years of annual, self-reported general health and unhealthy days data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 165 urban areas across the contiguous U.S. We compared health self-reports for people living in coastal vs. non-coastal urban areas and for residents of the disaster-prone Gulf of Mexico region vs. other locations. Coastal urban areas were defined as those having ≥50% of their population living within 20 km of a coast. Results: We found no overall health advantage of residing in a coastal urban location when all urban areas were considered. However, residents from non-Gulf of Mexico coastal urban areas reported modestly better health than residents from non-coastal areas. In contrast, self-reported health of Gulf coastal urban residents was significantly poorer than that of residents from other urban areas. Conclusions: The frequency of disasters and history of health and socioeconomic disparities in the Gulf region may be responsible, at least in part, for the apparent lack of health promoting effects of coastal location there.

Performance of ERA5 reanalysis precipitation products in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao greater Bay Area, China

Precipitation is an important component of the global water cycle. A comprehensive understanding of precipitation characteristics, especially that in urban areas, is essential for practical applications in hydrology. ERA5, a state-of-the-art reanalysis product with wide temporal coverage as well as fine spatial and temporal resolution, has greater potential to reproduce precipitation than many other products. However, how ERA5 precipitation performs has not been well investigated in urban areas. Therefore, we evaluate and compare the ability of two ERA5 products, ERA5-Land and ERA5-HRES, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) using observations from over 3000 rain gauges in a high-density network during 2018. The results show that ERA5 products generally characterize moderate-intensity rain. Due to the different causes of seasonal precipitation as well as the combined influence of coastal effects and topography, the best performance of ERA5 products is found in the southern coastal plains during the wet season and in the northern mountainous vegetation areas during the dry season. Meanwhile, it is challenging for ERA5 products to model precipitation in areas with higher urbanization levels. We also find that ERA5-Land data with finer spatial resolution fails to deliver any preferable results than ERA5-HRES. ERA5 products needs further improvement in the GBA for providing accurate precipitation patterns. This paper gives a detailed insight into the performance of ERA5 products, which offers a valuable reference for its probable applicability in the coastal urban areas.

Optimal energy hub development to supply heating, cooling, electricity and freshwater for a coastal urban area taking into account economic and environmental factors

In this paper, the design and performance of an energy hub to supply the demands of heating, cooling, electricity and freshwater for a coastal urban is considered. The modeling framework considers exergy and economic factors as well as greenhouse gas emissions. To optimally meet the demands of the energy hub, the consumed energy flows and their exchanges with the outside of the hub are determined. The optimization problem will be solved according to the environmental conditions, demands and design parameters of energy hub equipment. A comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of the energy hub is considered in order to take into account the economic and emissions outlook, along with renewable energy sources. In this study, two levels of integrated system modeling are simulated as “design” and “environmental-design” to optimize the energy hub with high accuracy. The results showed that the microturbine capacity decreased during the hours of sun exposure and power generation by the solar panels. As the heat generated by the Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) system increases, the contribution of the adsorption chiller in cooling demand has increased. After performing optimization, the total annual costs in the urban area decreased by 30%, exergy efficiency increased by 28%, and carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 16%.

Optimization of Coastal Protections in the Presence of Climate Change

It is generally acknowledged that interdependent critical infrastructure in coastal urban areas is constantly threatened by storm-induced flooding. Due to changing climate effects, such as sea level rise (SLR), the occurrence of catastrophic events will be more frequent and may trigger an increased likelihood of severe hazards. Planning a protective measure or mitigation strategy is a complex problem given the constraints that it must fit within a prescribed and limited fiscal budget and be beneficial to the community it protects both socially and economically. This article proposes a methodology for optimizing protective measures and mitigation strategies for interdependent infrastructures subjected to storm-induced flooding and climate change impacts such as SLR. Optimality is defined in this methodology as a maximum reduction in overall expected losses within a prescribed budget (compared to the expected losses in the case of doing nothing for protection/mitigation). Protective measures can include seawalls, barriers, artificial dunes, restoration of wetlands, raising individual buildings, sealing parts of the infrastructure, strategic retreat, insurance, and many more. The optimal protective strategy can be a combination of several protective measures implemented over space and time. The optimization process starts with parameterizing the protective measures. Storm-induced flooding and SLR, and their corresponding consequences, are estimated using a GIS-based subdivision-redistribution methodology (GISSR) developed by the authors for finding a rough solution in the first brute-force iterations of the optimization loop. A storm surge computational model called GeoClaw is subsequently used to simulate ensembles of synthetic storms in order to fine-tune and achieve the optimal solution. Damage loss, including economic impacts, is quantified based on calculated flood estimates. The suitability of the potential optimal solution is examined and assessed with input from stakeholders' interviews. It should be mentioned that the results and conclusions provided in this work depend on the assumptions made about future sea level rise (SLR). The authors acknowledge that there are other, more severe predictions for sea level rise (SLR), than the one used in this paper.

Future Climate Change Impact on Urban Heat Island in Two Mediterranean Cities Based on High-Resolution Regional Climate Simulations

The Mediterranean is recognized among the most responsive regions to climate change, with annual temperatures projected to increase by 1–5 °C until 2100. Large cities may experience an additional stress discomfort due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. In the present study, the WRF-ARW numerical weather prediction model was used to investigate the climate change impact on UHI for two Mediterranean cities, Rome and Thessaloniki. For this purpose, three 5-year time-slice simulations were conducted (2006–2010, 2046–2050, 2096–2100) under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission scenario, with a spatial resolution of 2 km. In order to comprehensively investigate the urban microclimate, we analyze future simulation data across sections crossing urban/non-urban areas, and after grouping them into three classes depending on the location of the grid cells. The urban areas of both cities present increased average minimum temperature (Tmin) in winter/summer compared to other rural areas, with an UHI of ~+1.5–3 °C on average at night/early morning. Considering UHI under future climate change, we found no significant variations (~±0.2 °C). Finally, we found that the numbers of days with Tmin ≥ 20 °C will mostly increase in urban coastal areas until 2100, while the largest increase of minimum Discomfort Index (DImin) is expected in urban low-ground areas.

Large conservation opportunities exist in >90% of tropic-subtropic coastal habitats adjacent to cities

Large conservation opportunities exist in >90% of tropic-subtropic coastal habitats adjacent to cities

Impact of green roofs on heavy rainfall in tropical, coastal urban area

Green Roofs (GRs) are one of the measures considered for Urban Heat Island (UHI) mitigation. The cooling effects of GRs are well studied in the literature. However, previous work has not addressed the impacts of GRs on heavy rainfall in cities. This study develops and tests the hypothesis that incorporating green roofs in urban areas enhances the magnitude of rain for heavy rainfall events. To test this, examples of heavy rainfall events over three different years are examined over Mumbai, India, one of the megapoleis that continues to witness heavy rains and urban flooding. The heavy rain events are simulated using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for different green roof fraction (GF) scenarios (10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) over the urban area. The GF simulations are compared to the ‘no GF’ simulation (control run). The results indicate a consistent increase (1%–72%) in the total accumulated precipitation in all GF scenarios. Additional moisture and increased equivalent potential temperature aided the formation and sustenance of localized pockets of enhanced rain occurrences, contributing to the total amount of rainfall for the rain events for the domain. The increase in rainfall amounts leads to higher runoff and can increase the risk of flash floods. Thus, it is necessary to account for this rainfall-based feedback of GR before adopting it as a mitigation option. The results of this work may be helpful in effective urban planning and managing the urban climate extremes.

Occurrence, characterization, partition, and toxicity of cigarette butts in a highly urbanized coastal area.

Cigarette butts (CBs) comprise one of the most relevant categories of marine litter worldwide. This study was structured as a case study simultaneously assessing (i) the occurrence of CBs in a highly urbanized coastal area, (ii) their partitioning in two environmental compartments (water column and sediments) by laboratory settling tests, and (iii) the toxicity produced by the CBs leachates (measured as copepod reproduction). Marine litter was sampled in beaches of the city of Santos (SW Brazil) and CBs were collected for analysis. The characterization showed that CBs were one of the most prevalent items (51.5% in summer and 34.4% in winter) and 22 cigarettes brands were identified at different stages of decomposition. Laboratory settling tests showed that CBs remain in the water column between 3 and 20days, subsequently reaching the sediments. The toxicity results indicated that CBs the leachates extracted from a small amount of CBs was sufficient to affect copepod reproduction (0.1 and 0.01 CBs L-1). Furthermore, the approaches adopted by the present study can serve as a preliminary assessment to estimate local impacts resulting from inadequate disposal of cigarette butts in coastal areas around the world.