African coastal camera network

Network overview

Effective decision-making for coastal management in Africa, requires the best and most up-to-date
science. And this depends on the ability to collect long-maintained and real-time data, necessary to interpret and predict nearshore processes occurring at multiple temporal scales.

Nearshore video camera systems are a low-cost option for high-frequency continuous long-term monitoring, with the advantage of being complementary to traditional measurement techniques (satellite, buoys, tide gauges, etc.) and particularly suited for tropical developing countries and open-wave areas. Several parameters are estimated from video imagery, such as the shoreline position, intertidal topography, nearshore bathymetry, breaking wave height, sea level variations, nearshore currents.

Video cameras allow for the collection of hard-to-access data on a continuous, long-term basis, effectively filling the data gap and, most importantly, ensuring effective monitoring of ocean conditions and beach changes.

A pilot video camera system was installed at Grand Popo (Benin) in 2013 and the network is currently being extended to West and Central Africa.

Read this article for more details : Abessolo, G.O., Almar, R., Angnuureng, D.B. et al. African coastal camera network efforts at monitoring ocean, climate, and human impacts. Sci Rep 13, 1514 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28815-6

Video images

The datasets generated by the African coastal camera network are available on reasonable request. Correspondence and requests should be addressed to :

Benin : Frédéric Bonou (Université Nationale des Sciences Technologies, Ingénierie et Mathématiques (UNSTIM), Abomey, Benin)
Ghana : Donatus B. Angnuureng (ACECor, University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
Senegal :
Cameroon : Grégoire O. Abessolo (University of Douala, University of Ebolowa) – Raphaël Onguene (University of Douala)
Côte d’Ivoire :