Advances in Technologies and Methods for Assessing Sea-Level Rise Impacts in the MENA Region: A Scoping Review

Sea-level rise threatens coastal ecosystems, infrastructure, and populations worldwide. This scoping review examined methods for assessing sea-level rise impacts in the MENA region, including their strengths, limitations, geographic distribution, and research gaps. Eligible studies were English-language journal articles or conference papers published between 2010 and 2026 that empirically assessed sea-level rise impacts within the MENA region using a defined methodological approach. Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection were searched using terms related to sea-level rise, assessment technologies, and MENA countries. A total of 407 records were identified, with 250 remaining after duplicate removal and preliminary exclusions. Following title and abstract screening, 110 reports underwent full-text evaluation, and 87 were ultimately included. Data were charted using a structured framework and analyzed descriptively and thematically. The studies were classified into remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GISs), index-based assessments, numerical modelling, and artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven methods. Remote sensing and GISs were the dominant approaches, primarily applied to inundation, shoreline change, land subsidence, and exposure mapping, with their reliability influenced by elevation accuracy and simplified treatment of flood connectivity. Index-based approaches supported vulnerability screening, though their outputs were sensitive to indicator selection, weighting, and classification thresholds. Numerical models represented coastal processes and infrastructure performance more explicitly, although sparse observations and calibration data limited their applicability. AI and data-driven methods were used for predictive analysis and dynamic exposure estimation, but their reliability depended on training-data quality, independent validation, and physically grounded interpretation. Research was mostly concentrated in Egypt and Morocco, while substantial geographic gaps persisted across several MENA coastlines. Future research should integrate validated high-resolution observations, relative sea-level change, process-based modelling, socioeconomic projections, and independently validated data-driven methods to support more reliable coastal planning and adaptation.