À l’image de nombreux territoires caribéens, la Martinique est soumise à quasiment tous les risques naturels majeurs : séismes, éruptions volcaniques, ouragans, inondations, etc. Cependant, il en est un, plus insidieux, qui grignote ses marges, accroît la vulnérabilité de ses populations côtières et met ainsi en péril une partie non négligeable de son potentiel économique : l’élévation du niveau de la mer et son corrolaire, l’intrusion marine. À travers l’exemple de la Communauté d’agglomération de l’Espace Sud de la Martinique, une évaluation cartographique de l’intrusion marine a été réalisée. Il ressort de cette étude que contrairement à ce qui avait été annoncé, la dynamique d’intrusion est plus importante que prévu et que le phénomène ne cesse de s’accentuer. Ces premiers résultats devraient inciter les décideurs à agir.

Although it has contributed very little to global air pollution, Martinique - like the Caribbean micro-island territories - will be hard hit by climate change in general and sea level rise in particular.Optimistic forecasts predict that Martinique will lose 5% of its area by the end of this century, while pessimistic forecasts indicate that it will lose 9 to 10%. Whatever the situation, it will be necessary to set up a real policy of protection of the populations living on the coastal margins, even of the displacement of the latter. The example of the commune of Prêcheur (North of Martinique), a precursor in this field, will be deciphered, because it is likely to become a real model.

The management of sea-level rise in Martinique, a French island in the Caribbean, is a great concern. Island vulnerability is proven. Human, economic and ecological issues are concentrated on the coast. Because of the uncontrolled coastal urbanization, the functioning of the territory can be challenged. Urban restructuring is necessary to ensure the urban resilience. This article looks at the history of the urbanization of the ‘50 pas géométriques’ zone to understand how this vulnerability arose, and at the policies implemented to try to control urbanization in this coastal zone, before tackling the new planning issues linked to the context of climate change and, more particularly, sea-level rise.This paper was produced for the presentation made at the Caribbean Urban Forum, 2021.

Awareness of climate change and of the urgent need to change our lifestyles is a major challenge. Understanding the mechanisms that govern the evolution of our collective representations is an interesting lever for action for public policies, in that it makes it possible to support them and improve the effectiveness of public action. This is the postulate made by the Communauté de communes of the Center of Martinique (CACEM), by carrying out a socio-anthropological study on the perceptions and mechanisms of understanding climate change. The study sheds light on the current mechanisms of production of representations on the climate in Martinique, and identifies levers to make them evolve towards a better consideration of the climatic reality in the actions of each and collective decisions.The survey carried out shows that, if the reality of climate change is not questioned by the inhabitants, its impacts on the island remain little perceived and verbalized, which hinders the construction of social representations of climate change. The concepts through which climate change is described on a global scale are not appropriated by part of the population, without a local vocabulary being deployed. The immediate importance of social and economic issues also tends to eclipse the long-term effects of climate change, sometimes in a context of lack of confidence in public authorities. However, environmental issues are a major concern for residents, for whom the question of responsibility (of local authorities, the State, companies, individuals) is central.This conceals powerful levers for improving awareness and initiating the move towards action, such as sensitivity to the notion of autonomy, individual empowerment, aspiration to the collective and to social ties, attachment to places and to the Martinican identity.

In territories exposed to natural risks, the Natural Risk Prevention Plan (PPRN) must take part in helping to adapt to climate change. The first PPRN was developed in 2011 in the French part of St-Martin’s island. It hardly had an impact, as the urbanisation of coastal areas continued, while increasing the vulnerability of the territory. In the aftermath of major hurricane Irma in September 2017, the local authorities launched an improvement of the cyclonic component of the ‘PPRN’. This article aims to explain how the PPRN is experienced as both an obstacle and a catalyst, as a tool in the adaptation to climate change in an island territory; the different prospects depending on the development process of the tool, and how it is understood and appropriated by the stakeholders.

Le but de cette étude est d'évaluer les impacts écologiques des activités anthropiques sur les écosystèmes littoraux et marins du Parc National des Trois Baies (PN3B) dans le Nord-Est d'Haïti. En d'autres termes, cette recherche tend à mesurer les changements opérés au niveau des habitats naturels, afin d'estimer les menaces que subissent les espèces clés des sites étudiés. Pour y parvenir, des outils tels que le système d'information géographique (SIG) et la télédétection, combinés aux résultats des recherches bibliographiques et des missions de terrains, ont été utilisés. Cela a permis d'identifier les habitats naturels prioritaires pour l'étude, d'évaluer leur évolution entre 1987 et 2017, d'inventorier les causes de ces évolutions et d'apprécier les modifications environnementales. Cette étude révèle que durant les trois dernières décennies (1987-1997 ; 1997-2007 ; 2007-2017), la végétation de mangrove du Parc National des Trois Baies (PN3B) a connu un recul considérable de l'ordre de 2 639,85 ha, soit près de 40 % de la superficie de départ. Les analyses des activités économiques pratiquées et les modes d'occupation du sol identifiés au sein des bassins versants dominants du Parc montrent qu'il existe un lien étroit entre les activités anthropiques et la dégradation des écosystèmes littoraux et marins, particulièrement la mangrove. Cette recherche a permis de révéler les interactions entre un système bioécologique, représenté par le milieu naturel, et un système socio-économique spécifique, celui du PN3B.

For several years, energy transition is at the heart of all the discussions of the leaders of the Caribbean, who wish to reduce their dependence on oil. Indeed, most islands, particularly those forming the Lesser Antilles are highly dependent on oil, although some of them have real geothermal potential, until now under exploited. Despite the obstacles hindering the process leading to an energy transition, several geothermal projects are developing in the region.

Bien que l'érosion côtière soit inhérente aux côtes, il n'en demeure pas moins que ce phénomène est accentué par la forte occurrence des perturbations climatiques. Les mutations du climat à l'origine de l'élévation de la mer, combinées à l'association de multiples facteurs anthropiques, accentuent la crise érosive que connaissent les littoraux antillais. Cette situation est dommageable pour les îles telles que la Martinique vu que les littoraux y sous-tendent l'activité touristique.

Coastal floods are commonly associated to meteorological local storm conditions and well-known storm surge phenomenon resulting from both reversed barometric effect and wind driven setup. The wave breaking plays a major role too in water level variation on the beach. It causes two kinds of water level changes: a static component called wave setup and an instantaneous one called swash or uprush. Those to phenomenon are responsible in certain case for more than 2/3 of total level rises above mean sea level. During Lenny and Omar hurricane circulation, the Martinique island west coast was considerably affected. Water levels reached during the two hurricanes circulation was reconstituted (hindcasting method) for North West Coast of de island, particularly for the district of St Pierre. Variation factors was decomposed and modeled with nesting method using ADCIRC hydrodynamic model for tide and meteorological surge. The propagation model SWAN and breaking wave model pCOULWAVE, was used to estimate wave setup and swash components. This work about decomposition of sea water variation level associated to reconstitution of floods limits by field inquest and evidences, point up the district vulnerability in front of strong hurricane swell. It also shows the necessity to consider all sea level variation factors in flood risk studies in terms of preventive documents and actions.

During the past thirty years the surface of mangrove swamps in the Lesser Antilles has globally decreased over twenty percent.The phenomenon is worldwide spread but the Lesser Antilles' issues remain noteworthy because, due to the small size of these islands, prejudices on the mangrove swamps may have significant impacts.This paper starts to address some methodological remarks about statistics concerning mangroves (before the nineties, long-term data are incomplete and they impede a good estimate of the evolution of this ecosystem) and is mainly divided in two parts.In the first part, we briefly recall the importance of mangrove swamps in the Lesser Antilles.Despite the different physical characteristics of these islands, mangroves appear from several points of view as one of the common feature in these islands.Quantitatively, from 1980 to 2010, the area occupied by mangroves has regressed in the Lesser Antilles and in the world in general.Mangroves were soon disqualified owing to their inaccessibility and unhealthiness.Furthermore, deprived of their traditional functions, they have been progressively marginalized with economic development and rising living standards in small islands economies notwithstanding their positive role as an ecosystem.Highlighted since the 1980s, this role appears particularly evident in the field of marine resources and protection against hurricanes and tsunamis, but also to help restore the quality of coastal waters and biodiversity.In the second part of this paper, we wonder about the paradox faced by the inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles.On the one hand they really cannot prevent major natural threats on their wetlands like global climate change, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes or tsunamis.And on the other hand, due to their territorial and political scale, these small islands should be able to act against local anthropogenic threats i.e. deforestation, household effluents, agriculture, urbanization, tourism, etc.Indeed, the Lesser Antilles islands have adopted the principles of ecosystem protection and integrated development of coastal areas (including various international conventions in this area).The land use policy, the urban planning, the building on the coastline or next to the mangroves are theoretically under public control.But the paradox is that effective provisions and outcomes are often weak against direct anthropogenic threats even if local solutions do not seem to be out of reach.We give a few typical examples illustrating the damage to mangroves in these islands today whatever the political status or the administrative organization.We conclude by considering that the case of mangroves in the Lesser Antilles may be a good illustration of the economic problem posed by the management of the commons.Shortly, the protection granted to goods depends on the value of goods.As for us the continuous decrease of mangrove surfaces reflects the lack of recognition of their value at every sense of the word.Even outside the market system, the recovery and the protection of mangrove swamps should first involve the determination of their explicit economic value.

La décennie qui vient de s'écouler a vu l'émergence dans les Petites Antilles de politiques locales volontaristes en faveur de la protection et de la mise en valeur de l'environnement. Mais dans ces territoires insulaires caribéens, les initiatives politiques en faveur du développement durable se heurtent fréquemment aux conditions du milieu naturel (récurrence des risques naturels majeurs, exiguïté des territoires, topographie tourmentée, fragilité des écosystèmes littoraux), ainsi qu'aux difficiles réalités économiques et sociales (taux de chômage élevés, hypertrophie du marché du travail, pauvreté, pression foncière exacerbée) et accusent au final des résultats mitigés. À travers les exemples de la gestion intégrée des zones côtières et du jardin créole urbain, cette étude cherche à montrer d'une part, comment il est difficile pour l'instant d'appliquer une politique de développement durable à l'échelle de l'île (Martinique, Dominique) et d'autre part, comment, à l'inverse, peuvent perdurer de véritables initiatives écologiques et économiquement porteuses, à l'échelle locale. The decade which has just passed by saw the emergence in Lesser Antilles of voluntarist local politics in favour of the environmental protection and development. But in these Caribbean island territories, the political initiatives in favour of the sustainable development collide frequently with the natural environment (recurrence of the major natural risks, exiguity of territories, restless topography, fragility of the littoral ecosystems) as well as with the difficult economic and social realities (high unemployment rates, hypertrophy of the labor market, poverty, aggravated land pressure) and show in the end mixed results. Through the examples about integrated management of the coastal spaces and the urban Creole garden, this paper tries to show on one hand how it is difficult at the moment to apply a sustainable development policy in the island (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Santa Lucia); and on the other hand how, on the contrary, real ecological and economically can continue locally initiatives fruitful.

Natural hazards do have impacts on development. Of heavy consequences on both the human life and the economic development these impacts are critical in most of the Caribbean islands in general and specifically in Haiti. Thus, there is an urgent need to implement strategies aiming at reducing risk for lessening losses. By implementing well designed risk management strategies vulnerability can be reduced, and as a consequence, investment and employment can be protected. Even so preparedness to sustainable development is at the global Agenda, with regards to the specific case of Haiti, we assume that, at present, the country is not at all involved in such a long run strategy. Government attention is focused on immediate urgencies to be solved. By questioning the particular case of tourism, we show the positive impact of risk management strategies on growth using a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA).

Located at the centre of the arc of the Lesser Antilles in the East of the Caribbean Sea, Martinique is an island of 1.100 km2. It is part of the French Repu...

Situada no centro do arco das Pequenas Antilhas a leste do Mar do Caribe, a Martinica é uma ilha com 1.100 km 2 .Ela faz parte integrante da República francesa e da União Europeia, onde é reconhecida como uma das sete regiões ultraperiféricas, com as ilhas Canárias (Espanha), a Madeira e os Açores (Portugal).Um projecto de recifes artificiais foi iniciado no ano 2000 para facilitar o repovoamento haliêutico e permitir, após um período de interrupção da pesca, uma exploração

Realise sous la direction du Professeur Jean-Michel Jauze, « L’ile Maurice face a ses nouveaux defis » est un ouvrage collectif de 380 pages alimente par les travaux d’une vingtaine de chercheurs. Au premier abord, il s’agit d’un ouvrage classique, publie aux editions l’Harmattan, mais a y regarder de plus pres, cet ouvrage revet une vraie dimension scientifique et geopolitique, car il a ete realise par une equipe pluridisciplinaire (geographes, historiens, economistes, environnementalistes e...