When erosion nibbles on the dune

Audio 7:30 p.m.

La Faute-sur-Mer, Belle Henriette beach, the dune 10 years after Xynthia. RFI / Agnès Rougier

By: Agnès Rougier

If coastal erosion is a natural phenomenon, sandy beaches, which occupy more than a third of the world's coastlines, often in highly populated regions, are threatened with extinction by erosion, an erosion due to new construction, storms, and rising sea levels due to global warming.

Publicity

In France, the Atlantic coast, from Vendée to the Basque Country, is a long cordon of sand dunes very sensitive to the movements of the wind and the ocean, but the Vendée coast remains in balance between erosion and accretion - sand deposits -. However, new constructions coupled with violent storms, like that of Xynthia in 2010, pose risks for the populations who live by the sea.

(March 18, 2020 replay)

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