Résumé
Efforts to describe the functioning and the dynamics of the 1600-km-long mangrove-fringed coast of the Guianas, a giant ocean-mud-mangrove interface, depict a highly complex system where sedimentary, ecological, morphodynamic, biogeochemical and oceanographic processes are closely linked at all spatial and temporal scales. To our knowledge, no model is presently capable of simulating multi-scale influences of coastal physical processes on mangrove development. Existing models are relatively few and are disconnected. In this paper we explore an approach based on a landscape modelling language called Ocelet. After a brief description of the modelling approach and its simulation environment, we explain how we would decompose the complex mangrove dynamics modelling problem into more accessible parts. One of the parts focusing on mangrove expansion on a mud bank is detailed, and the incremental enrichment of the model with other coastal interactions between vegetation, mud and ocean is discussed. (Résumé d'auteur)