The report is almost finished, presentation is ready: The research is completed

It has been quiet on my blog for a while; I left The Gambia to work on my modelling study in the Netherlands and to work on my final report. Actually, in the mean time I have paid a ‘small’ visit to The Gambia. During the first period there were a lot of meetings with the government of The Gambia and contact with the locals gave a good picture of the coast and what happened during the last years. Next to this, a bathymetric survey in front of the Senegambia area had been performed with simple equipment. During the further study it became clear that further off-shore than the measurements the reefs are still present and have a large influence on the wave climate. Therefore a new trip to The Gambia was planned to perform an extensive bathymetric survey in collaboration with a specialist company. This time there were no problems with the equipment, but it was rainy season in The Gambia. I heard that the rains were short and very intense, but I haven’t seen anything like this yet. During some short rain showers, the roads were flood, our hotel flooded and finally all this water was drained on the Beach in front of Senegambia leaving large gaps in the beaches. The next day we would go onto the ocean with a small boat and a lot of electrical equipment. Let’s hope the weather will be better.

Fortunately the weather was better the following day, although some clouds were present which looked dangerous. The same boat was used as during the previous measurement but the measuring equipment was far more professional, larger and heavier, requiring a lot of electrical current. At first we hired some car batteries to have power on the boat. After a half day I was called by the surveyor that the batteries were low while he was measuring far away from the harbour; returning would mean the day would be lost. So I felt like a real African when I went into the ocean in my boxer-shorts with batteries on my head, which we removed from 3 different cars, to deliver them to the boat which was a little bit far off-shore as the waves were to rough close to the coast. Fortunately the batteries made it until the end of the day and for the following days we rented a generator. We were in The Gambia only for one week and in the end we lost just one day because of the heavy rains. The best thing was that at the end of the day the sun was shining most of the time, so a long and hard day of work was ended in the hotel pool with a beer at the bar.

So during the second trip everything went great, apart from the small problem with the car batteries which was solved adequately. Only during our departure there was a (small) problem when checking in the equipment. The customs did not trust the equipment, they wanted to know what we have done, the documents were not present and a lot of other stuff I did not understand. Luckily I still had the letter from the ministry which I received during my first visit, which explained my research and said that I should receive help when needed. This was enough and with a small grumble the equipment went to the Netherlands.

Also on the second trip I noticed that The Gambia is a country full of pleasant, friendly and helpful people. They want to do everything very seriously but sometimes they have no idea what to do. Still, they want the best for their country and I hope that I can help them with my research.

A research that is almost finished. At this moment I am finishing my final report and next week is the presentation. The project was a very good learning experience for me with a lot of different facets. The high erosion in front of the hotels is caused by different processes. Shells in the nourished sediment have a bad influence in the sediment characteristics causing the erosion to be higher. The water level has a very large influence on the sediment transport; sea level rise causes large erosion behind the reefs. Also the wave climate is changing at The Gambia, the change is very small but has an influence on the transport rates. Unfortunately, all these processes cause a larger erosion rate in front of the hotels. The coast south of Senegambia has been accreting and a beautiful beach is present there. If there is 1 place along the coast where all the problems come together, that would be Senegambia. Using the results of the study a new design can be substantiated, but building new hotels along the coast and shift the tourism are to a different are would also be a good solution..

This is the end of my research, I was very lucky that I could do my research in The Gambia. The slogan of the country is true: The Gambia, the smiling coast of Africa