Remote Data for Mapping and Monitoring Coastal Phenomena and Parameters: A Systematic Review

Since 1971, remote sensing techniques have been used to map and monitor phenomena andparameters of the coastal zone. However, updated reviews have only considered one phenomenon,parameter, remote data source, platform, or geographic region. No review has offered an updatedoverview of coastal phenomena and parameters that can be accurately mapped and monitored withremote data. This systematic review was performed to achieve this purpose. A total of 15,141 paperspublished from January 2021 to June 2023 were identified. The 1475 most cited papers were screened,and 502 eligible papers were included. The Web of Science and Scopus databases were searchedusing all possible combinations between two groups of keywords: all geographical names in coastalareas and all remote data and platforms. The systematic review demonstrated that, to date, manycoastal phenomena (103) and parameters (39) can be mapped and monitored using remote data (e.g.,coastline and land use and land cover changes, climate change, and coastal urban sprawl). Moreover,the authors validated 91% of the retrieved parameters, retrieved from remote data 39 parametersthat were mapped or monitored 1158 times (88% of the parameters were combined together withother parameters), monitored 75% of the parameters over time, and retrieved 69% of the parametersfrom several remote data and compared the results with each other and with available products.They obtained 48% of the parameters using different methods, and their results were compared witheach other and with available products. They combined 17% of the parameters that were retrievedwith GIS and model techniques. In conclusion, the authors addressed the requirements neededto more effectively analyze coastal phenomena and parameters employing integrated approaches:they retrieved the parameters from different remote data, merged different data and parameters,compared different methods, and combined different techniques.