Shoreline evolution: GIS, remote sensing and cellular automata modelling

Abstract : The evolution and more particularly the erosion of the coasts morphology is an important environmental subject. Both the study of the actual evolution of coasts via digital tools and their modelling for the sake of prediction are necessary. A study of the evolution of a section of the Algerian coastline with a geographical information system shows that erosion is the main factor for the shoreline evolution, in the absence of structures consolidating the beaches. Therefore, a qualitative numerical model of the erosion of a coastline is proposed. It relies on a coupling between a cellular automata sedimentation model and a bi-fluid hydrodynamical model based on the Lattice Boltzmann method. The current model is two-dimensional and simulates a cross-section of a virtual coastline. The virtual coastline exhibits a gradual erosion by the water, whose speed depends on the kind of perturbation applied on the water level.