| Summary: | The global need for freshwater resources by densely populated regions has resulted in the excessive exploitation of groundwater (GW), subsequently leading to seawater intrusion (SWI) predisposed to the influences of rising sea levels and changing climates. This research proposes a state-of-the-art review of SWI to develop proper coastal integrated water resource management. For these purposes, a detailed review of the long research period on SWI in terms of conceptual advancement, identification techniques, and protection and mitigation procedures is presented. Past, present, and future improvements of SWI were analysed from the available literature and comprehensive bibliographic analysis based on the largest available database (Scopus) was performed from 1970 to March 2022. We found that hydrogeological, hydrochemical, isotopic, and geophysical methods accounted for 7.2%, 8.1%, 3.7%, and 9.2% for SWI assessment studies, respectively. Moreover, SWI modelling, and simulation received the closest attention, accounting for 49.4% and 22.3%, respectively. The outcomes also revealed that China, the United States of America (USA), Australia, India, and Italy are the countries with the highest contributions to the field of SWI, accounting for 17%, 14%, 5.6%, 5%, and 4.5% of research, respectively. The obtained results also suggest further developments for enhancing the management of SWI in the affected regions. For Saudi Arabia, we found that more research is required for SWI assessment and management.
|
|---|