Publications scientifiques

A dense network of instruments has been deployed within harbors along the Mediterranean coast, in the Toulon Metropole area, between the Hyères islands and the Sanary Bay in the framework of the observation network HTM-NET. Each station is equipped with two piezometric sensors, the first immersed and the second emerged, which allows the calculation of the water level. Both piezometric sensors are also equipped with a temperature sensor. Water level and temperature data are analyzed and discussed, also considering meteorological data provided by Météo-France stations.

The Global Sea-Level Observing System (GLOSS, https://www.gloss-sealevel.org/) is an international programme conducted under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)of UNESCO. GLOSS aims at the establishment of high quality global and regional sea level networks for application to climate, oceanographic and coastal sea level research. The programme became known as GLOSS as it provides data for deriving the 'Global Level of the Sea Surface'.

River mouths along sandy coastlines are influenced by alongshore transport of littoral sands and the interaction of hydrodynamics processes at the river mouth. These interaction are responsible for opening/closure of river outlets and subsequent episodes of sand bypassing by spitbreaching. Here, we study these mechanisms of alongshore sediment bypassing at a river mouth along the French Mediterranean coast. Over the last 6 years, bypassing processes were found to be associated with spit elongation and spit breaching.

The analysis of long-term tide gauge data collected in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean reveals that the seasonal cycle of mean sea level (hereafter MSL) exhibits amplitudes of up to 0.4 m. The position of MSL is of fundamental importance for many issues such as storm-induced flooding or the morphodynamics of shallow inlets, yet the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. We characterize the seasonal cycle based on field observations complemented with a numerical hindcast.

Intertidal flats lying as a buffer zone between land and sea provide critical services including protection against storm surges and coastal flooding. These environments are characterized by a continuous redistribution of sediment and changes in topography. Sea level rise, anthropogenic pressures, and their related stressors have a considerable impact on these areas and are expected to put them under more stress; hence the increased need for frequent and updated topography maps.

The multipath signals of GNSS can act as a tide gauge via a technology called Global Navigation Satellite Systems multipath reflectometry (GNSS-MR), which is based on the relationship between multipath frequency and height to sea surface. In addition to the traditional frequency extraction method of Lomb–Scargle periodogram (LSP), wavelet analysis can be applied to extract instantaneous multipath frequencies of GPS L1, thus improving data utilization.

With 5853 km of coastlines facing the North Sea, the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, France displays littoral zones exposed to a wide spectrum of wave climates, tidal ranges and storm surges. This study aims at characterizing in a systematic way sea level variations along the coasts of France. Wave climates are first characterized using state-of-the-art high resolution hindcasts validated against available observations from the national network CANDHIS.

Mayotte Island is characterized by a vast coral reef-lagoon complex comprising significant mangrove development and numerous pocket beaches nested between volcanic headlands. Since 2005, field experiments involving topographic surveys, observations and hydrodynamic measurements have been coupled with the analysis of aerial photographs (1950-2016) in order to improve understanding of the morphodynamic interactions between mangroves, beaches and the coral reefs.

Afin d'anticiper les dommages engendrés par les phénomènes de submersion marine et d'y faire face, CCR a développé un modèle spécifique à ce péril pour la France métropolitaine. Ce modèle présente deux volets : une modélisation déterministe permettant d'estimer le coût d'un événement quelques jours après sa survenance et une modélisation probabiliste permettant d'estimer l'exposition au risque de submersion marine.