Lamine Ousmane Cassé

Lamine Ousmane Cassé is a professor and researcher in geography at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His research focuses on land speculation and peri-urbanization processes in West African coastal cities, with a particular emphasis on issues of climate vulnerability and socio-spatial inequalities. He is also interested in the residential trajectories of disaster victims and modes of urban production. He has participated in research projects and urban planning workshops in West and Central Africa. He also serves as an external expert for ANAQ-Sup, evaluating training programs at Senegalese universities.

The project

Title: Urbanization, Land Grabbing, and Risks in Coastal Cities of Senegal and Sub-Saharan Africa

“This research project is part of an existing scientific collaboration between Gaston Berger University (Senegal), CESSMA, Paris Cité University, and IRD. It represents a key milestone in this partnership through the creation of an atlas titled “Coastal and Delta Cities Facing Climate and Environmental Change: Adaptation Challenges in Africa and Asia,” conducted in collaboration with Sylvie Fanchette, Research Director at IRD, with the support of that institution. The Atlas offers a comparative analysis of African and Asian coastal and deltaic cities facing the combined effects of climate and environmental change. By drawing on approaches from geography, urban planning, and climate science, it aims to better understand the trajectories of these territories, the dynamics of metropolization, the socio-environmental vulnerabilities that characterize them, and the adaptation strategies developed at various scales. Through its interdisciplinary and comparative approach, this project aims to advance our understanding of the resilience challenges facing major coastal metropolises. This initiative will be extended through a training program and courses at INALCO and within the DynSud Master’s program at Paris Cité. In October 2026, a fall school on environmental migration will be organized in Paris by COSAV “Migrations,” IRD, and Gaston Berger University. This collaborative effort extends to several ongoing publishing projects with Cathy Chatel, a research engineer, focusing, on the one hand, on the geographer’s field experiences in unfamiliar contexts—intended as a methodological handbook for researchers—and, on the other hand, on a study dedicated to the structural geography of Senegal."

Hosting institution: Centre d’études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques (CESSMA) – IRD

Selective Bibliography

• Cassé Lamine Ousmane, 2026, « Interroger le devenir de Saint-Louis, une ville d’identité à l’épreuve de l’exploitation gazière au Sénégal », In Abdourahmane Mbade SÈNE, Oumar SY et El Hadji Balla DIÈYE, Pensées et politiques d’aménagement du territoire mutations urbaines, mégaprojets et fractures socio-spatiales, Actes du colloque international des, Deuxièmes Journées de l’Aménagement du Territoire, Dakar, Tome 2, L’Harmattan, p. 149-178
• Cassé Lamine Ousmane, Diouf Babacar et Fall Awa, 2025, Vulnérabilité territoriale versus résilience sociale à l’épreuve des inondations dans les Parcelles Assainies de Keur Massar à Dakar (Sénégal), Revue de Géographie du LARDYMES, Àh כֿh כֿ, n° 19, p. 24-40
• Diouf Babacar, Cassé Lamine Ousmane, Ndiaye Modou et Mbaye Ibrahima, 2025, « Les « entrées-de-ville » : espaces de nouvelles dynamiques et convoitises foncières à Thiès (Sénégal) » In Problématique des marges ou actualité du décentrement dans la production des savoirs scientifiques, Mélanges offerts au Professeur Ousseynou Faye, Dakar, L’Harmattan, p 269-292
• Cassé Lamine Ousmane, 2024, « Mobilité résidentielle et logique des itinéraires vers la périphérie Boudiouck de Saint-Louis (Sénégal) », Géotrope, n° 02, p.171-184
• Cassé Lamine Ousmane, 2024, « Dynamiques spatiales et production immobilière sur le littoral Malika (Sénégal) », Espaces Africains, Tome 1, pp.305-327