Geospatiality of sea level rise impacts and communities’ adaptation: a bibliometric analysis and systematic review

The impacts of sea level rise under a changing climate negatively affect the world’s coastal zones and threaten livelihood opportunities of the dependent communities, thereby highlighting the need for improved coastal adaptation strategies. The study employed a two-step methodology (i.e. bibliometric and systematic review) to analyse the geospatiality of sea level rise impacts and communities’ adaptation. In total, 363 papers were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science databases, and 292 were considered eligible and used for the bibliometric analysis. In the systematic review, the study aimed for specific community adaptation strategies from the 292 papers, and 118 papers were eligible following developed criteria. Results indicate that countries are committed to helping their coastal communities to adapt to sea level rise impacts and the USA has been significant in that regard. Coastal communities adapt to sea level rise impacts by increasing their structural/physical or social options; however, policy/institutional assistance to intensify these options is limited. Also, specific community adaptation strategies to sea level rise impacts have been more of the engineered and built environment (67%) strategies and few on ecosystem-based strategies (7%). More ecosystem-based strategies are, thus, needed considering their socio-ecological benefits. Further research and increased communities-policymakers engagement for enhanced adaptive capacity is required.