Regional Coastal Bathymetry from Sentinel-2 Optical Imagery based on waves using the S2Shores framework (West Africa)

Description: This dataset provides high-resolution coastal bathymetry for West Africa, derived from Sentinel-2 optical satellite imagery using the S2Shores algorithm. The algorithm exploits the time difference between Sentinel-2's multispectral bands to track surface wave kinematics and invert water depths using the linear dispersion relation. The dataset covers 4,000 km of coastline from Senegal to Gabon, with depth estimates up to 35 meters and a spatial resolution of 200 meters.

Key Features:

• Coverage: 73 Sentinel-2 tiles, spanning 4,000 km of West African coastline.
• Depth Range: 1–35 meters, with best accuracy in intermediate depths (10–30 meters).
• Resolution: 200 meters per pixel.
• Methodology: Uses wave kinematics (celerity and wavenumber) extracted from Sentinel-2's 10-meter resolution bands (blue and red).
• Validation: Compared with GEBCO and local bathymetric surveys, achieving an R² of 0.76 and RMSE of 4.9 meters for depths 1–35 meters in Senegal.
• Complementarity: Works in turbid waters where color-based methods fail, but is limited in sheltered or shallow (<10 meters) areas.

Applications:

• Coastal zone management and planning.
• Risk assessment for waves, floods, and erosion.
• Research on coastal dynamics and sediment transport.

Limitations:

• Overestimates very shallow depths (<10 meters).
• Performance depends on wave conditions and cloud cover.
• Computational constraints limit the number of images used per composite.

Access: The dataset is a product of the S2Shores algorithm and is intended for research, governance, and coastal management applications. For further details, refer to the original publication in Remote Sensing of Environment (Daly et al., 2022).