Dr Awa Bousso Drame

PhD Overview

My PhD focused on the application of geospatial analysis, coupled with machine learning techniques, geochemical analyses, and environmental economics, to provide a systemic understanding of the long-term evolution of the Senegal Estuary coast through the lenses of climate change and human interventions. This study leverages field measurements, historical maps, and recent Earth observation imagery to produce original research in a data-scarce environment. Together, they offered an interdisciplinary and multi-criteria approach to examine the influence of human interventions and climate variability on the evolution of this coastal system over the past 300 years. Findings also contribute to the fields of coastal geomorphology, climate change, wave/ocean modelling (ENSO, NAO, AMO, swell and sediment transport), and urban/colonial studies. The economic valuation of sand undertaken further advances the unexplored field of coastal ecosystem services economic valuation in West Africa the investigation and represents a novel methodology and knowledge to the field of environmental economics, which is in high demand for informed decision-making in coastal management. Furthermore, this work lays the foundation for sustainable sediment management plans that foster transboundary, integrated management of low-lying, sandy coastal systems while underscoring the need for a balance between urban development and coastal systems preservation.