Smart Survey Methods for Coastal Heritage Conservation in Saudi Arabia: The Case of Al Qatif

Abstract

Abstract. In a context marked by rapid urbanization, economic restructuring, and increasing tourism pressure, the coastal historic fabrics of the Gulf are exposed to processes of alteration, material loss, and progressive disappearance. Among these, the coral- and sand-based settlements, such as Al Qatif in Saudi Arabia, represent highly fragile heritage systems that are undergoing severe reduction and irreversible transformation. Within this framework, there is an urgent need to apply advanced digital technologies - such as Geographic Information Systems, 3D survey techniques, and heritage modelling platforms - integrated with an analogical and participatory approach, including student involvement and field-based activities, in order to document and interpret coastal heritage that is at risk of disappearance. These tools must be understood not as neutral solutions, but as critical devices capable of revealing the material, environmental, and stratigraphic complexity of these urban systems. The contribution also addresses the risk of “heritage washing,” understood as the reduction of heritage to simplified aesthetic imagery lacking historical and material depth, when digitalization is not guided by a scientific and context-sensitive approach. Al Qatif is thus proposed as an emblematic case for applying a smart approach to fragile coastal heritage, where sand, coral, and urban memory form an inseparable system to be recorded, understood, and preserved through advanced digital and integrated methodologies.