Abstract: It is of great significance to fully explore the research status and development of remote sensing in coastal zones to deal with the ecosystem function decline, natural shoreline loss, water quality deterioration and other problems of coastal zones. To fully identify the current situation and development trend of coastal zone remote sensing research, the present work studies 6 083 literatures with the topic of “coastal zone remote sensing” from 1990 to 2019 based on the Web of Science databases. Systematic bibliometric evaluation and knowledge map analysis were conducted in views of basic information of paper publication, scientific research cooperation, the focus of research content and the theme evolution. In regard to basic information of paper publication, the amount of remote sensing publications in coastal zones increased steadily from 1990 to 2019. This is obvious for their regional characteristics concentrated mainly in the coastal areas of all continents, where developed countries led a position. The journal of “Remote Sensing of Environment” was characterized by the highest number publications and the highest impact factors. America, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Hu C M were the country, institution and author with the highest number publications, respectively. According to the analysis of H index, the academic influence of relevant scientific research achievements still needs to be improved in further. In regard to scientific research cooperation, there existed a relatively close collaboration network among USA, England and other developed countries. Although the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the most productive institution, the value of intermediary centrality was only 0.09, which was lower than those of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (0.16) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (0.12). Therefore, the collaboration with research institutions abroad should be strengthened in future. Hu C M had the most closed academic cooperation with other scholars. In regard to research topics and frontiers, the trends are much diversified. The research contents of coastal zone remote sensing mainly focused on water color, coastline, land use/cover, ecosystem monitoring, disaster and urbanization.