Coastal Erosion in West and Central Africa: UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies No. 67

This report was conceived with a naturalistic approach, i.e. global and inter-regional, incorporating different parameters which shape the coastal zone. It is subdivided into 3 main parts. The first one takes into account factors influencing coastal morphogenesis : climate and general oceanography, as first order environmental parameters ; geological formations as substrate over which the former exert their action, and the nature of the vegetation cover and of the soils they generate ; sediments distribution on the continental shelf, sources of these sediments (not necessarily of a terrigenous origin), hydrodynamic factors which rework the sediments ; sea level variations (minute at human's scale, but globally important), and, last but not least, man's interaction with the coastal zone.