This paper reviews the basic theoretical information needed to understand the tsunami wave’s phenomenon, causes, and implications on coastal cities. The first part describes the basic knowledge of the tsunami waves and some experimental and large and small physical modeling performed to understand the Tsunami and take care of its effect in the future. The influence of climate changes and global warming on the rise of water level and its effect on the Arab Gulf and Iraq are also presented. Then the principles of tsunami generation, involving earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic will be discussed. The tsunami propagation, inundation, and interaction with the coastal structures will be reviewed in brief. Also, the paper reviews some previous studies on tsunami simulation. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.