Résumé
Mangroves are highly productive tropical and subtropical ecosystems at the interface between land and sea. They provide (i) important ecosystem services to coastal communities, (ii) habitat for birds, fish, crustaceans and other invertebrates, and their root systems are particularly attractive to juvenile fish seeking shelter from predators. Mangroves also allow carbon sequestration in the soil, reduce coastal erosion and attenuate waves, providing valuable protection against climate change effects. However, globally, the extent of mangroves continues to decline, mainly due to human population growth associated to coastal development and global environmental changes. Since the mid-2000s, there has been an increased awareness of the services rendered by mangroves. In addition to being recognized by multilateral environmental protection agreements (CITES, Ramsar...) mangroves have been the focus of many international research or conservation programs. Remote sensing has been widely proven to be an essential tool for monitoring and mapping highly threatened, often difficult-to-access mangrove ecosystems. It provides important information for habitat inventories, detection and monitoring of changes, support for ecosystem assessment (biomass and regeneration capacity), monitoring and management of natural resources, as well as ecological and biological functions. The comprehension of mangrove ecosystems benefits greatly from the current context of Earth observation, which offers a multiplication of sensors providing data of different nature (optical and SAR), resolutions (spatial, temporal and spectral), and an open data and open source environment in constant growth. In this context, we propose a new methodological framework dedicated to the monitoring of mangrove dynamics based on remote sensing. It aims at proposing a standardized approach for data processing in a generic framework. Ready-to-use remote sensing products will be provided for future on-line webservices, destinated to local stakeholders, policy makers and actors of mangrove dynamics monitoring and conservation.