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Lucrezi, S., 2021. Remote public engagement in coastal citizen science: A systematic scoping review. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(6), 1271–1287. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Coastal monitoring and management can be enhanced by citizen science (CS), especially because Information and Communications Technology (ICT) enables remote public engagement in CS. To date, this type of engagement would benefit from a thorough investigation to highlight its supportive role to coastal CS, identify its unique challenges, and propose solutions and research avenues to sustain its development. A systematic scoping review and qualitative analysis of scientific papers (N = 53) described the state of the art in remote public engagement in coastal CS. The analysis revealed unique advantages of remote engagement in coastal CS, including flexibility, social inclusivity, and organised communication management. Challenges, mainly associated with technology, could be solved by simplifying interfaces to streamline communication and participation in CS. The review identified research gaps and confirmed the potentially positive contribution of remote engagement in coastal CS, which could enhance coastal monitoring, management, public participation, and stewardship.

Lucrezi, S. and Saayman, M., 2015. Beachgoers' demands vs. Blue Flag aims in South Africa. The Blue Flag is a beach award aimed to preserve features of the beach environment. While it is assumed that the Blue Flag attracts tourism, this depends on factors such as the socio-demographic background of beachgoers, their perception of beach attributes, and their knowledge and perception of the Blue Flag. This research used structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate relationships between perceived beach attributes (beach selection criteria, deterrent factors of the beach, and beach quality rating) and beachgoers' knowledge and perception of the Blue Flag award on three Blue Flag and three non-Blue Flag beaches in South Africa. A single statistically significant relationship emerged between beach quality rating and evaluation (both positive and negative views, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive) of the Blue Flag award by beachgoers. The data highlight the importance of generating bottom...

Lucrezi, S. and van der Merwe, P., 2015. Beachgoers' awareness and evaluation of the Blue Flag Award in South Africa. Beach awards such as the European Blue Flag are increasingly adopted in many countries as an environmental brand to promote better beach management and encourage tourism. However, the validity of the Blue Flag award has been criticized in the literature, and research shows that the award is still not widely known and has marginal influence on tourists' beach selection. This study, conducted at six popular South African beaches, three with and three without Blue Flag status, investigated awareness and evaluation of the Blue Flag award among 579 beachgoers. Results from a structured questionnaire showed that over half of the participants, mostly people on the Blue Flag beaches, knew about the Blue Flag award and its criteria; however, approximately one-third of the participants were unaware of it. Participants tended to be less tolerant of supposed water-quality degradation than the...