Abstract
Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are vital to the low-carbon energy transition, yet their success depends on selecting sites that balance energy potential, environmental sustainability, maritime safety, and economic feasibility. Despite expanding research, methodological inconsistencies and the underrepresentation of high-potential regions such as the Red Sea and Arabian maritime zones remain major gaps. This review addresses (1) the inconsistent representation of decision-making frameworks in OWF site selection literature, and (2) the limited development in resource-rich maritime zones despite favourable wind regimes. Ninety-seven peer-reviewed papers (2015–present) were collected, and metadata were manually extracted from full texts. Although OpenAlex was initially used for retrieval, its metadata often failed to capture the full and precise scope, and inconsistent terminology—such as multiple labels for the same concept—risked misleading analysis. Standardization, splitting of compound terms, and manual tagging of unlisted methodologies enabled accurate classification by decision framework and turbine type. The analysis revealed that MCDA was the most common framework (56 papers), with AHP leading within this category (18). Fuzzy logic appeared in 15 studies, and hybrid approaches—especially MCDA combined with fuzzy methods—were frequent. Research on floating turbines has increased sharply since 2020. In deployment, Northern European countries lead in offshore wind production per capita, Brazil and China dominate in total capacity, while the Red Sea and Arabian maritime zones host only one recorded project, currently in pre-construction in Egypt.