The island effect on the global sclae : size, ranking and shape of oceanic islands Island studies : critical concepts in geography, vol. 4 /Depraetere, Christian ILE ARCHIPEL BASE DE DONNEES HIERARCHIE MORPHOLOGIE COTE FRACTAL SUPERFICIE INSULARITE Much has been said about islands but no global definition of this geographical phenomenon has so far been made available. A normative approach is consequently difficult to adopt. A database was put together involving 1,085 islands in the size range of 100km2 to 1,000,000km2. Each digitized file of the coastline is linked to the following information: name, country, basic planimetric figures (surface, coastal length), location (latitude and longitude in degrees), and scale of the map used for planimetric purposes. From this sample, a study of the relationships between surfaces and frequencies highlights a simple statistical law which can be related to properties of a fractal structure. A surface area-based hierarchical method is presented to depict the degree and type of ‘cephalic’ structure of the archipelago. Some coastal form indices are presented, with their significance related to the geomorphological context of some islands. Kelman, I. (ed.) Baldacchino, G. (ed.) 2016 text https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010067229 fdi:010067229 Depraetere Christian, . The island effect on the global sclae : size, ranking and shape of oceanic islands. In : Kelman I. (ed.), Baldacchino G. (ed.), . Island studies : critical concepts in geography, vol. 4 ). 2016, 21 EN MONDE