Title: The role of digitalisation in the development of Guyana coastal analysis system

Authors: Temitope D. Timothy Oyedotun; Gordon Ansel Nedd; Esan A. Hamer

Addresses: Department of Geography, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Guyana, P.O. Box 10 1110, Turkeyen Campus, Georgetown, Guyana ' Department of Geography, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Guyana, P.O. Box 10 1110, Turkeyen Campus, Georgetown, Guyana ' Department of Geography, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Guyana, P.O. Box 10 1110, Turkeyen Campus, Georgetown, Guyana

Abstract: Digitalisation has revolutionised coastal management by providing access to open-source geospatial data and cloud-based tools. The Guyana Coastal Analysis System (G-CAS) utilises digital globalisation through datasets like Landsat and Sentinel-2, and the processing power of Google Earth Engine to improve coastal monitoring and resilience. This paper explores how digitalisation supports G-CAS through AI-driven analytics, machine learning, GIS models, hydrodynamic simulations, and automated shoreline detection. These tools enable efficient flood risk assessment, shoreline change analysis, and coastal squeeze monitoring. The study highlights the value of open-access data in enhancing data-driven decision-making, especially in low-resource contexts. However, challenges remain, including data access issues, computing limitations, and gaps in policy integration. Addressing these through improved predictive models, adaptive policy frameworks, and local capacity-building is crucial. Despite these hurdles, digitalisation offers transformative potential for climate adaptation and sustainable coastal management in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Guyana.

Keywords: climate resilience; coastal monitoring; flood risk assessment; geospatial analysis; Google Earth engine; GEE; open data; remote sensing.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2025.147804

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2025 Vol.24 No.3, pp.251 - 268

Received: 07 Apr 2025
Accepted: 22 May 2025
Published online: 01 Aug 2025 *

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