ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several examples specific to coastal environments, based on the investigations carried out in France and in particular at the IFREMER. Land cover and land use of coastal regions are today undergoing rapid changes, more particularly in countries producing and exporting petroleum or mineral products. Other modes of coastal exploitation have also become preponderant. From an administrative point of view, the extension of the coastal zone on the upstream, coastland, side can be limited to the border of littoral communities and on the downstream side, to 12 nautical miles. 'Pure' mineral targets such as sands, muddy sands, mud and rocks exhibit monotonous spectral characteristics between blue-violet and near-infrared. The intertidal littoral zone generally constitutes a 'mosaic' of various biological communities, substrata of varied geology and grain-size, moisture gradients associated with inundation and exudation, all disturbed by human activity.
