Descroix Luc auteur aut IRD Guichard F. auteur aut IRD Grippa M. auteur aut IRD Lambert L. A. auteur aut IRD Panthou G. auteur aut IRD Mahé Gil auteur aut IRD Gal Laëtitia auteur aut IRD Dardel C. auteur aut IRD Quantin Guillaume auteur aut IRD Kergoat L. auteur aut IRD Bouaita Yasmin auteur aut IRD Hiernaux P. auteur aut IRD Vischel T. auteur aut IRD Pellarin T. auteur aut IRD Faty B. auteur aut IRD Wilcox C. auteur aut IRD Malam Abdou M. auteur aut IRD Mamadou I. auteur aut IRD Vandervaere J. P. auteur aut IRD Diongue-Niang A. auteur aut IRD Ndiaye O. auteur aut IRD Sane Y. auteur aut IRD Dacosta H. auteur aut IRD Gosset Marielle auteur aut IRD Casse Claire auteur aut IRD Sultan Benjamin auteur aut IRD Barry A. auteur aut IRD Amogu O. auteur aut IRD Nka Nnomo B. auteur aut IRD Barry A. auteur aut IRD Paturel Jean-Emmanuel auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access In the West African Sahel, two paradoxical hydrological behaviors have occurred during the last five decades. The first paradox was observed during the 1968-1990s Great Drought' period, during which runoff significantly increased. The second paradox appeared during the subsequent period of rainfall recovery (i.e., since the 1990s), during which the runoff coefficient continued to increase despite the general re-greening of the Sahel. This paper reviews and synthesizes the literature on the drivers of these paradoxical behaviors, focusing on recent works in the West African Sahelo/Sudanian strip, and upscaling the hydrological processes through an analysis of recent data from two representative areas of this region. This paper helps better determine the respective roles played by Land Use/Land Cover Changes (LULCC), the evolution of rainfall intensity and the occurrence of extreme rainfall events in these hydrological paradoxes. Both the literature review and recent data converge in indicating that the first Sahelian hydrological paradox was mostly driven by LULCC, while the second paradox has been caused by both LULCC and climate evolution, mainly the recent increase in rainfall intensity. specialized Sahel land use land cover changes water holding capacity climate change hydrological paradox re-greening AFRIQUE DE L'OUEST SAHEL ZONE SOUDANOSAHELIENNE 062 021 082 068 126 10 6 art. 748 [37 p.] 2018 2073-4441 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010073708 10.3390/w10060748 2073-4441 [F B010073708] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010073708 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers18-09/010073708.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2018-09-12 2025-11-04 fdi:010073708 fre