The Arabian Gulf is one of the regions in the world experiencing major changes due to increased economic growth rates and development practices. As a shallow water body within a hot desert, the Gulf is exposed to obvious warming in the sea surface temperatures (SST). Remotely sensed SST data were utilized to estimate decadal change in SST with a focus on coral reef locations. There is a positive trend in monthly time series SSTs, with a maximum value of about 0.7 °C/decade for the western side of the Gulf. This high trend of SST is associated with significant coral reef bleaching and it coincides with major climate/ocean interactions. Most of the Arabian countries along the Gulf have coastal developments at low-land areas of high vulnerability to sea level rise. Digital elevation models showed that there are more than 3100 km² of coastal areas that occur at 1 m level along the Arabian countries of the Gulf. Coastal protection and conservation measures are crucial to protect low-lying coasts of urban use.

The Nile Delta covers only 2% of Egypt's area but hosts 41% of the country's population and comprises 63% of its agricultural land. Analysis of digital elevation models revealed that 18.1% of the delta lies below the mean sea level, 12.7% has an elevation between 0 and 1 m, and 13.1% lies between 1 and 2 m. If the sea level rises by 1 or 2 m, these areas are prone to be flooded. The western section of the delta is most vulnerable to a 1 m sea level rise, whereas the entire coastal areas are impacted by flooding when the sea level rises by 2 m. Locations susceptible to inundation encompass urban neighbourhoods, agricultural areas and coastal wetlands.

The Burullus Lagoon is one of the most severely impacted water bodies in the Nile Delta. A set of six satellite images acquired between 1973 and 2011 was employed to map the change of the surface area of the Burullus Lagoon in the Nile Delta using the water indices approach. In this paper we applied the non-traditional normalized difference water index (NDWI) and the modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) to quantify the change in the water body area of the lagoon during the study period. Results showed that the lagoon lost 42.8% of its open water area due to the severe anthropogenic activities, such as the reclaiming of its southern margins for agricultural purposes and the filling caused by the discharge of agricultural wastes. Proper management should be adopted to sustain the vitality of the Burullus wetland ecosystem

The Egyptian Mediterranean coast was examined for the vulnerability to sea-level rise using the coastal vulnerability index (CVI), which was derived from the geologic and physical characteristics of the coast. This paper is the first to apply the CVI along the Egyptian coasts. The coast has different geomorphologic aspects ranging from steep-slope-rocky cliffs to gentle sloping deltaic sediments. Although the coast is under low tidal effect and low height waves, results showed that more than one-third of the 1000 km long coast is severely vulnerable to sea-level rise. Unfortunately, the area under high vulnerability to sea-level rise comprises the densely populated Nile Delta coast. National actions should be implemented to safeguard the entire coast at the threatened locations