Geography of Senegal


Senegal is a coastal West African nation located 14 degrees north of the equator and 14 degrees west of the Prime Meridian. The country's total area is 196,190 km2 of which 192,000 km2 is land and 4,190 km2 is water.
70% of the population of Senegal lives in the Coastal Region. Because most of Senegal's population is on the coast, climate change is expected to displace larger parts of the population.

Physical features

Senegal is bordered to the west by the North Atlantic Ocean. On land, the nation's longest border is with Mauritania to the north, an 813 km border along the Senegal River. To the east is the 419 km border with Mali. In the southeast is Guinea and to the south-southwest is Guinea-Bissau, both borders running along the Casamance River. Senegal is one of only a handful of countries to have a near-enclave within its borders—the small nation of the Gambia in the interior, which has a 740 km border with Senegal.
The Gambia penetrates more than 320 km into Senegal, from the Atlantic coast to the center of Senegal along the Gambia River, which bisects Senegal's territory. In total, Senegal has 2,640 km of land borders, and 531 km of coastline and shoreline. Senegal makes maritime claims of a contiguous zone, a territorial sea, and a exclusive economic zone. It also claims a continental shelf, or to the edge of the continental margin.
Another distinctive and well-known feature of the country is the pink-water Lake Retba, near the city of Dakar, which is one of the few lakes in the world with naturally pink or reddish coloured water.
The lowest point in Senegal is the Atlantic Ocean, at sea level. The highest point is an unnamed feature 2.7 km southeast of Nepen Diakha at.

Climate

Tropical; hot, humid; rainy season has strong southeast winds; dry season dominated by hot, dry, harmattan wind.
Well-defined dry and humid seasons result from northeast winter winds and southwest summer winds. Dakar's annual rainfall of about occurs between June and October when maximum temperatures average and minimums ; December to February maximum temperatures average and minimums.
Interior temperatures are higher than along the coast, and rainfall increases substantially farther south, exceeding annually in some areas. Extremes in annual precipitation range from 250 mm in the extreme north, to 1800 mm in extreme southern coastal areas. In the far interior of the country, in the region of Tambacounda, particularly on the border of Mali, temperatures can reach as high as.

Climate change

Ecology

Senegal has a number of vegetation zones: sahel, Sahel-Sudan, Sudan, Sudan-Guinea, tropical rainforest, and Guinean mangroves. Most of the southern Casamance arm of the country has been classified by the World Wildlife Fund as part of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion.
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Terrain:
generally low, rolling, plains rising to foothills in the southeast.
Natural resources:
fish, phosphates, iron ore
Land use:
arable land:
19.57%
permanent crops:
0.28%
other:
80.15%
Irrigated land:
1,197 km2
Total renewable water resources:
38.8 km3
Natural hazards:
lowlands seasonally flooded; periodic droughts
Environment - current issues:
wildlife populations threatened by poaching; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; overfishing
Senegal is a party to several environmental treaties:
Senegal has signed, but not ratified the Convention on Marine Dumping.

Extreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of Senegal, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.