The coast of Saint-Louis in Senegal is eroding. One idea to reduce erosion and save the livelihoods of the people living in this area, is to place a sand island in front of the coast. HKV was asked to study if such an island could withstand storms. To carry out this study, HKV used the open-source software XBeach. Several island designs were considered. The outcome was that all island designs can withstand the storm conditions in this area.
There are many more aspects that determine whether such an island is feasible such as the long-term stability of the island, the amount of sand needed and available to build such an island, and the effect of the island on the coastline of Saint-Louis. These aspects will need to be further studied. Are you interested in seeing the model results of our study in 3D? Watch the video below.
The study was requested by a research team of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It formed part of the EU-funded RES-COAST project* which addresses key challenges to coastal ecosystems today, aiming at making fishing populations more resilient to climate change.
* “Infrastructure Planning and Risk Management Tools for the Development of Coastal Economies Resilient to Climate Change in West Africa “, acronym RES-COAST (code MAC2/3.5b/314), an Interreg-MAC 2014-2020 program, within axis 3 (focused on promoting adaptation to climate change and risk prevention and management), of 1,8 mil € and 85% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
