Contemporary Global Coastal Management Strategies and Coastal Infrastructure and Their Application in Ghana: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Systematic literature reviews provide the foundation for evidence-based research in a particular field of study. In this regard, the systematic review of the relationship between coastal management strategies and coastal infrastructure typologies provides an opportunity to benchmark local coastal adaptation policies against contemporary global practices, technologies, and sustainability. However, systematic reviews of coastal infrastructure in Ghana and West Africa at large are limited. To close this research gap, we conducted a systematic literature review of the global implementation of coastal management strategies and coastal infrastructure and provided a synopsis of coastal management in Ghana. To achieve this, we searched the Scopus Database for literature on coastal management approaches and infrastructure typologies. Forty-eight peer-reviewed publications met the inclusion criteria for full-text analysis. The results indicate a significant global shift from purely grey infrastructure toward integrating green and grey infrastructure. However, despite contemporary global advances, coastal infrastructure in developing contexts—particularly in Ghana—remains mostly static, using reactive, hold the line strategies, and grey infrastructure. As sea-level rise continues to intensify coastal hazards globally, increasing the demand for coastal protection, researching coastal management policies and coastal infrastructure is essential to support the hybridization of grey and green infrastructure and encourage transitions to adaptive coastal management instead of continuous coastal hardening using grey infrastructure.