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environment, but also for the management of the upstream
river basins.
The subtle geography of the estuaries and, more gener-
ally, of fluvio-marine systems (lagoons, deltas, etc.), should
also teach us how to better employ the various dimensions
of the rich notion of coastal area and lay the foundations of
a kind of development and planning that is integrated into
the natural land matrix, buoyed by it and respectful of it.
consideration, and the threshold effects that charac-
terise the different manifestations of climate change.
The combination of permanent shoreline monitoring
with the monitoring of changes in climate conditions
should enable the production of scenarios to be
updated regularly, in order to reduce the uncertainty
that today besets any forecasting in terms of climate.
References
Estuarine Sentries
Bamber JL (2009) Reassessment of the potential sea-level rise from a
collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science 324:901-903
Cook KH, Vizy EK (2006) Coupled model simulations of the West
African monsoon system: twentieth-and twenty-first-century sim-
ulations. J Clim 19:3681-3703
Corcoran E et al (2009) Les mangroves de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et
centrale. PNUE—Programme des Mers Régionales
Meehl GA et al (2007) Global Climate Projections
Pelissier P (1990) Post-scriptum à Rivages. L'Afrique tourne-t-elle le
dos à la mer? Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 117(XXX-1):7-15
Tebaldi C, Hayhoe K, Arblaster J, Meehl G (2006) Going to the
extremes. Clim Change 79(3):185-211
UEMOA-IUCN (2011) Schéma Directeur du Littoral d'Afrique de
l'Ouest—SDLAO
Weisse R, von Storch H (2010) Marine climate change: ocean waves,
storms and surges in the perspective of climate change. Springer,
Berlin
White F (1983) The vegetation of Africa, UNESCO
Christensen JH et al (2007) Regional climate projections
Nicholls R, Tol R (2006) Impacts and responses to sea-level rise: a
global analysis of the SRES scenarios over the twenty-first century.
Philoso Trans A 364(1841):1073
In West Africa, the concentration of social and economic
stakes on the coastal strip, along with the multiple rapid
changes already underway, calls for the implementation of
forward-thinking, deliberate land planning policies, in order
to preserve the fragile coastal interface on which the future
depends—the future, not only of the coastal States, but also,
partially, of the Sahelian States (population mobility; eco-
nomic exchanges).
Interconnecting the inland areas with the coastal sea, the
estuaries aggregate these stakes. Historically and geo-
graphically, estuaries are structural components of the West
African seaboard, and are today in the front line of exposure
to the general trends affecting the entire coastal complex.
The complexity of the mosaic of estuarine habitats
determines their sensitivity to any changes in the environ-
mental conditions and positions the estuarine zones, which
are
generally
populated,
as
sentries
for
the
marine
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