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Coastal erosion at Saint Louis in Senegal is affecting the local population that consists of primarily fishermen communities in their housing and their access to the sea. This paper aims at quantifying urban beach erosion at Saint Louis, Senegal, West Africa which is located on the northern end of the 13 km long Langue de Barbarie sand spit. The coastal evolution is examined quantitatively over a yearly period using Pleiades sub-metric satellite imagery that allows for stereogrammetry to derive Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The comparison with ground truth data shows sub-metric differences to the satellite DEMs. Despite its interest in remote areas and developing countries that cannot count on regular surveys, the accuracy of the satellite-derived topography is in the same order as the coastal change itself, which emphasizes its current limitations. These 3D data are combined with decades-long regular Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery derived shorelines. These observations reveal that the sand spit is stretching, narrowing at its Northern part while it is lengthening downdrift Southward, independently from climatological changes in the wave regime. A parametric model based on a stochastic cyclic sand spit behaviour allows for predicting the next northern opening of a breach and the urban erosion at Saint Louis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlan, T.; Almar, R.; Gauduin, H.; Gosselin, M.; Morio, O., and Labarthe, C., 2020. 3D variability of sediment granulometry in two tropical environments: Nha Trang (Vietnam) and Saint-Louis (Sénégal). In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 495–499. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The sediment variability of two tropical beaches was studied in order to provide the input data of the COASTVAR project's morphodynamic models. The longshore, cross-shore and vertical sediment organization of the first decimeters seems important to take into account in modeling. In particular, the presence of coarser underlying sediments, very frequently observed at all latitudes, may be at the origin of the slope of the beach. And these coarser sediments can also cause significant changes in sedimentary dynamics, when the most energetic events come to set them in motion. But the 3D characterization of beach sediments is not easy and the methods to achieve it are presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bergsma, E.W.J.; Sadio, M.; Sakho, I.; Almar, R.; Garlan, T.; Gosselin, M., and Gauduin, H., 2020. Sand-spit evolution and inlet dynamics derived from space-borne optical imagery: Is the Senegal-river inlet closing? In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 372-376. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. With the majority of the world' population living in urbanised coastal zones, regional-scale coastal monitoring is a paramount tool to assess the risk exposure of local areas. At St. Louis, Senegal the coast experienced a recent acceleration in coastal erosion. Additionally, the sand-spit South of St. Louis is highly dynamic with one of the largest migration rates worldwide. In this study we showcase the use of satellite imagery to assess the morphological change of the St. Louis inlet position over more than 3 decades. The Senegal river inlet was artificially opened in 2003 Northward of its natural position. The effect of this opening is measured through local shoreline erosion and use of satellite data to predict the next closure of the Senegal-river inlet. Since the artificial breach coastal erosion at the fishmarket of St. Louis was measured, while the sand-spit initially accreted. Southerly sand-spit migration rates that varied from 475 m per year (before an artificial breach in 2003) to 590 m per year after the breach. With these migration rates and assuming limited changes in, for example, river run-off and wave environment, the inlet will close again around 2050 and 2055. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]