Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Holocene Lake Mega-Chad (LMC) was the largest late Quaternary water-body in Africa. The development of this giant paleo-lake is related to a northward shift of the isohyetes interpreted as evidence for an enhanced Monsoon (African Humid Period). Numerous preserved coastal features have been described all around the LMC shore. Such features reveal the main paleo-hydrodynamical tendencies. In the context of a closed water-body like LMC, hydrodynamics are forced mainly by winds. We use a three-dimensional numerical model (SYMPHONIE) to simulate the mean hydrodynamics in LMC under both Harmattan-like (northeasterly trade winds) and Monsoon-like (southwesterly winds) forcings. The northern part of LMC displays coastal features, such as sand spits, that are consistent with the simulations forced by Harmattan-like winds. Geomorphic features related to Monsoon-driven hydrodynamics are not clearly expressed. They could have developed during the early stage of LMC but subsequently reworked. At the time of sand-spit building, Harmattan-like driven hydrodynamics prevailed and related coastal features were preferentially preserved in the sedimentary record.
ISSN: 0033-5894

hal-00475633
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00475633
DOI : 10.1016/j.yqres.2009.10.010

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Coastal Education and Research Foundation
Résumé : The present work concerns cuspate spits: slightly symmetrical geomorphic features growing along the shoreline in shallow waters. We develop a new formulation for the dynamics of cuspate spits. Our approach relies on classical paradigms such as a conservation law to the shoreface scale and an explicit formula for alongshore sediment transport. We derive a non-linear diffusion equation and a fully explicit solution for the growth of cuspate spits. From this general expression, we found interesting applications to quantify shoreline dynamics in the presence of cuspate spits. In particular, we point out a simple method for the datation of a cuspate spit given a limited number of input parameters. Furthermore, we develop a method to quantify the mean alongshore diffusivity along a shoreline perturbed by well-defined cuspate spits of known sizes. Finally, we introduce a formal relationship between the geometric characteristics (amplitude, length) of cuspate spits, which reproduce the self-similarity of these geomorphic features.
ISSN: 0749-0208

hal-01234952
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01234952
DOI : 10.2112/SI70-009.1

Éditeur(s) : Université des Antilles Études caribéennes
Résumé : The Gold Coast in Australia is one of these coastal places, which developed through taking advantage of its environmental assets, such as direct access to the sea, a white sandy shoreline, an extensive and naturally protected broadwater and several large accessible rivers. While many other coastal cities relied on port facilities to develop commercial and naval activities, the City of Gold Coast emerged and grew as a tourism destination. Largely because of this phenomenon, the pattern of settlement and subsequent development of the city differs from most traditional Australian settlement and development patterns. Today, the Gold Coast is one of the most famous tourist cities in Australia and it accommodates more than ten million visitors annually.In the wider Australian context, 85% of the population lives within 50 km of the beach, evidencing popular lifestyle cultural preferences of many Australians. Given this preoccupation with the coast, one may expect that Australia would be at the forefront of coastal tourism developments and coastal protection. There is, however, no overriding jurisdiction covering planning law enforcement in maritime areas and, this situation has led to many social and environmental conflicts. The City of Gold Coast is a case in point and no more so than currently (2017) with proposals to build a cruise terminal or/and a casino, and high rise residential towers on its protected coastal strip (the Spit).This paper demonstrates how the evolution and resolution of development conflicts on the Spit (Gold Coast) are symptomatic of the evolution of place values and the national coastal management and how, this informs a shift towards coastal protection.
La ville côtière de Gold Coast, en Australie, s’est développée grâce à un environnement naturel exceptionnel, qui comprend un accès direct à la mer, un littoral de sable blanc, une large baie naturellement protégée et plusieurs rivières. Si la plupart des autres villes du littoral australien se sont appuyées sur leur port pour développer leurs activités commerciales et navales, la ville de Gold Coast est, depuis ses débuts, une ville touristique. De ce fait, son mode et ses formes de développement se différencient de ceux que l’on rencontre traditionnellement dans les autres villes. Aujourd’hui la ville de Gold Coast est l’une des principales destinations touristiques australiennes et accueille plus de dix millions de visiteurs par an.En Australie, 85% de la population habite dans un rayon de 50km de la plage, avec les préférences de style de vie qui y sont associées. Vu cette attraction pour le littoral, on pourrait présumer que l’Australie soit à l’avant-garde des développements touristiques et de la protection de son littoral. Cependant, du point de vue national, comme, historiquement, il n’y a eu qu’une faible jurdiction concernant l’aménagement et la protection des zones maritimes et du littoral, de nombreux conflits sociaux et environmentaux ont vu le jour. La ville de Gold Coast concentre malheureusement nombre de ces conflits ; le dernier en date concernant le projet de construction d’un terminal de bateaux de croisière et/ou d’un casino avec quelques tours residentielles sur une langue de terre protégée (le Spit).L’objectif de cet article est de montrer comment l’évolution et la résolution des conflits sur le Spit de Gold Coast, tous liés à des projets de développements touristiques, reflètent non seulement l’évolution de la valeur d’un lieu et l’approche nationale du développement du littoral, mais aussi le changement vers une meilleure protection du littoral.
Australie

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
urn:doi:10.4000/etudescaribeennes.10496
http://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/10496

Éditeur(s) : Gauthier-Villars
Résumé : Coastal lagoons have formed where marine inlets or embayments have become partly or wholly enclosed by depositional spits and barriers, built up as a sequel to the world-wide Holocene marine transgression. Spits and barriers consist of sediment (sand, shingle) derived from the sea floor or carrier alongshore from river mouth or eroding cliff sources; they have been shaped primarily by wave action, some migrating landward while others have remained in position or prograded seaward. A modern prevalence of erosion on barrier coastlines, recession resulting from net losses of sediment offshore, alongshore, or landward has been deomonstrated. This is the outcome partly of rising sea level and partly of diminishing sediment supply. Often the consequence of man's impacts on coastal environments. Examples are given of changes that have resulted from the cutting of artificial entrances through barriers to the building of barriers across tidal inlets to exclude marine penetration.
Oceanologica Acta, Special issue (0399-1784) (Gauthier-Villars), 1982

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00246/35750/34258.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00246/35750/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Maguelone shore extends along the northern coast of the Gulf of Lions, west of the Rhone Delta and east of high-gradient coastal streams that have provided most of the clastic sediments to the Gulf of Lions margin since the early Miocene. This 10 km-wide area is constituted by a small coastal watershed (15 km long) in low-lying carbonate hills, a kilometre-wide marsh, a sandy beach barrier and a shoreface experiencing local low sedimentation rates. This onshore-offshore transition zone is a key area to understand the relationships between erosion, by-pass, deposition and preservation processes. Unlike the neighbouring Rhone deposits that display numerous thick deltaic sequences related to a continuous sediment flux, the Maguelone shore exhibits peculiar sedimentary bodies. The analysis of about 250 km of new VHR seismic profiles acquired over the study area, 9 short cores and outcrops data allowed us to determine the three-dimensional high-resolution geometry of the coastal system tracts from Quaternary to present-day. This revealed dominant denudation processes in the Upstream catchments associated with the formation of incised valleys during Quaternary lowstands. In addition, this study investigates the erosion and deposition mechanisms controlled by littoral hydrodynamics that have been taken place on this shore since the last transgression. In particular, metre-high and hundreds of metre-long sandy bodies constructed by alongshore hydrodynamics were identified and their effect on the morphodynamics of the whole littoral system is discussed. The Maguelone shore can be used as an experimental study for onshore/offshore dynamics under the influence of microtidal wave/current hydrodynamics and very low river-derived sediment flux during a eustatic cycle. Geometry of system tracts across flood plain to shoreface is usually considered to be controlled by relative sea-level changes, and is successfully analysed with 2D sequence stratigraphy cross-shore models. It is observed that in areas like the Maguelone shore, traditional sequence stratigraphy methods might not be fully relevant and need to integrate alongshore hydrodynamical processes.
ISSN: 0025-3227

hal-00421060
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00421060
DOI : 10.1016/j.margeo.2009.06.008

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : A study combining very high resolution seismic and sediment core data has been carried out on the Thau lagoon (Mediterranean coast, microtidal setting, SE France) in order to understand more clearly the dynamics and Holocene chronology of its closure through the different stages of its filling. One main seismic unit (U2) has been defined into the infill, above the rocky basement (U0) and a composite unit U1, which is interpreted as remnants of Pleistocene fluvial terraces or/and to early marine Holocene deposits. Unit U2, that reaches locally 9 m in thickness, rests conformably on U1 in the central part of the lagoon and onlaps U0 or U1 close to the edge of the lagoon. It is divided in two sub-units, U2-1 and U2-2. U2-2 rests paraconformably on U2-1 in the central part of the lagoon where the infill is the thickest, while a marked erosional unconformity is observed between U2-1 and U2-2 on topographic highs of the basement and on the seaward edge of the lagoon. A total of seven elementary sequences have been observed in U2-1 and U2-2.;According to core data, U2 consists in a series of mud-dominated sequences, with shell fragments dispersed at the base. The vertical distribution of the fauna into U2-1 and U2-2 reveals a lagoonal environment. However in U2-1, marine species are more abundant in the south of the lagoon. C-14 AMS dating provides three ages: similar to 6000 cal yr B.P. in the lower part of U2-1 on CAL1, 5400 cal yr B.P. just above the boundary between U2-1 and U2-2 on CAL4, similar to 3000 cal yr B.P. in the middle of U2-2 on CAL4.;A scenario to explain the lagoon infill stratigraphy and geometry is proposed. The beginning of the lagoon infill occurred with the initiation of the barrier construction, as soon as the sea-level rise slowed down significantly, i.e. between 7000-6000 yr B.P. The sediment-fill began into the back-barrier system, with a high rate of sedimentation for U2-1, according to the radiocarbon data. At 5400 yr B.P., the barrier is assumed to be totally closed leading to the deposition of the fully lagoonal U2-2 succession. The unconformity between U2-1 and U2-2 is interpreted as the result of a rapid landward retreat of the barrier. This severe retreat could be related to climate forcing and/or brutal change in sediment discharge driven by the Rhone River, which is the main sediment source of the longshore drift. In this scenario, the last sub-unit, U2-2, represents most of the late Holocene infill. In this framework, the elementary sequences observed in U2-2 could be related to high frequency climate changes of about 1000-1500 years periodicity according to C-14 dates.
EISSN: 1777-5817

hal-00486386
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00486386
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.181.2.197

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : At present, the forecasting of littoral evolution presents a considerable social stake. Many studies have been achieved to better understand coastal dynamics. Such dynamics are controlled by morphology, sediment supply, hydrodynamics, eustacy... at different time scales. At geological time scale, deposits geometry, controlled by eustacy and subsidence, is succesfully analysed where sediment supply is high. But the littoral zones present important sediment supply variability. In low sediment supply areas, the record of coastal tracts is smaller and harder to interprete. Analyses of about 250 kilometres of new VHR seismic profiles acquired along the languedocian coast (Northern Gulf of Lion, France), tens of short cores and outcrops data allowed us to determine the three-dimensional high-resolution geometry of the coastal tracts from Quaternary to present-day. This highlighted the role of alongshore dynamics in coast where direct sediment supply is low. The concepts of protected lagoon and isolated lagoon were broughted to the fore and the effect of inherited incised valley morphology was discussed. Last, a complementary study by analogue modeling of the channel incision processes controled by eustatic and climatic changes allowed to discuss the role of incised valleys in coastal areas.
Actuellement, la prévision de l'évolution d'un système littoral représente un enjeu social important. De nombreuses études sont réalisées afin de mieux connaitre la dynamique côtière et donc de comprendre les facteurs qui influencent son évolution. Cette dynamique est contrôlée par la morphologie, les apports sédimentaires, l'hydrodynamique, l'eustatisme... qui agissent à des échelles de temps différentes et avec de fortes interactions. A l'échelle géologique, l'architecture des dépôts, contrôlée par l'eustatisme et la subsidence, est parfaitement décrite dans les zones à forts apports sédimentaires. Par contre, dans les zones à faibles apports sédimentaires, l'enregistrement des cortèges côtiers est réduit et est difficile à interpréter. L'analyse de 250 kilomètres de profils sismiques THR sur le littoral languedocien (Nord du Golfe du Lion, France), de carottages et de données de terrain a permis de déterminer la géométrie en trois dimensions des cortèges sédimentaires côtiers depuis le Quaternaire jusqu'à l'actuel. Ces observations montrent l'importance de la dynamique longshore sur les littoraux pauvres en apports sédimentaires directs. De plus, l'étude d'un système lagunaire sur ce littoral met en évidence les concepts de lagunes protégées et lagunes isolées ainsi que l'importance des vallées incisées dans la génèse de ces environnements. Enfin, la modélisation en laboratoire des processus d'incision de chenaux sous contrôle eustatique et climatique permet de discuter le rôle des vallées incisées en milieu côtier.
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00542897

tel-00542897
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00542897
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00542897/document
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00542897/file/theseraynaldef.pdf