Le scanner laser aéroporté est une technique d'imagerie très prometteuse, notamment pour l'observation des zones forestières. En particulier, la déclinaison "onde complète", qui consiste à enregistrer l'intégralité du signal lumineux réfléchi par la scène suite à l'émission d'une impulsion laser, permet de sonder les couverts végétaux en profondeur. De nombreux systèmes commerciaux sont disponibles et d'ores et déjà utilisés en particulier en topographie ou en bathymétrie. Mais ces systèmes ne sont pas dédiés à l'observation de la végétation. L'objectif de cette thèse est l'étude de l'intérêt de ces systèmes pour la reconstruction géométrique des modèles numériques de terrain sous couvert végétal, et le développement d'outils qui permettront d'optimiser les performances des systèmes lidar onde complète dans ce but. Dans un premier temps, nous avons développé un modèle physique de lidar onde complète adapté à la simulation de l'observation de scènes de végétation. Le modèle DELiS (n-Dimensional Estimation of Lidar Signals) permet de simuler l'observation de scènes de végétation complexes et réalistes, tout en incluant la prise en compte de l'environnement extérieur (atmosphère, soleil) ainsi que des bruits de mesure. Une fois le modèle DELiS validé par confrontation à des résultats analytiques, nous avons utilisé ses capacités de simulation afin d'étudier l'intérêt du lidar onde complète pour la reconstruction d'un modèle numérique de terrain sous couvert végétal. Dans ce but, nous avons mis en place une méthode originale de traitement et de classification des données lidar onde complète permettant de séparer les échos lidar provenant du sol de ceux provenant de la végétation. Grâce à ces données classifiées, nous pouvons ensuite reconstruire la géométrie du sol et des objets initialement occultés par la végétation. Enfin, nous nous intéresserons à la possibilité de combiner des données aéroportées acquises sous différents points de vue afin d'améliorer les reconstructions. Mis à part le développement d'un outil opérationnel de simulation de la mesure lidar onde complète, qui pourra servir de support à de nombreuses études ainsi qu'au développement et au dimensionnement de nouveaux instruments, nous avons pu démontrer dans cette thèse que le scanner laser aéroporté onde complète pouvait permettre d'obtenir en milieux forestier des reconstructions de la géométrie du terrain à des résolutions sub-métriques et avec une précision de l'ordre de 10 à 20 centimètres. La combinaison des visées multi-angulaire permet, par l'apport d'une quantité importante d'information supplémentaire, d'améliorer encore les reconstructions. Nous montrons cependant que les visées inclinées sont plus sensibles à la présence des troncs et branchages des arbres, éléments qui sont susceptibles d'introduire une erreur importante dans les processus de classification et de reconstruction. Pour cette raison, nous recommandons l'utilisation de la visée nadir pour la reconstruction mono-vue des modèles numériques de terrain, et nous proposons une méthode permettant de choisir de façon optimale les visées inclinées à ajouter pour l'observation détaillée d'une portion plus restreinte de la scène.

In order to understand the dynamics of desertification after the 1980s droughts, the trends and changes of photosynthetically active fraction of the vegetation cover of the semi-arid region of West Africa have been analyzed across three ecoclimatic entities. This study focuses on six countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Niger and Benin) that reflect quite well the human and environmental context of semi-arid regions. The main objective of this thesis is to check in the before-mentioned biophysical and human context, if the state of the vegetation improves because of more favourable rainfall conditions, or if, conversely, the long environmental deterioration during recent decades has a healthy dose of irreversibility for several years. The process of investigation proceeds in three stages defined by geographical scales and a geoclimatic gradient. At the regional level, we compared vegetation productivity data from 1982-1999 time series of NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data to rainfall data. We analyzed data from 315 rain gauges distributed across five countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Niger) with annual average isohyets ranging from 100 to 900 mm. For trends analysis, we used the ratio of the integrated vegetation index (iNDVI) during the crop-growth period (June to October) to the May to October sum of rainfall (RR). This ratio (iNDVI/RR), a proxy of the Rain Use Efficiency, is widely used by ecologists as an indicator for detecting desertification processes. Overall, our results show a significant increase of the net primary production as a response of post-drought rainfall increase. However, the trends of iNDVI/RR ratio suggest that most of the studied stations (54%) in sahelian and sahelo-sudanese belts were stable and 31.4% showed strong to very strong negative change in iNDVI/RR ratio, while 13.3% of the stations showed a moderate decrease and only 1.3% showed a positive trend. At the country level, similar trends were recorded throughout 128 stations in Burkina Faso located between the 500 mm and 1100 mm isohyets. In fact, more than half the studied stations showed a stability of iNDVI/RR ratio. However, 39.8% of them show a negative trend from low to high, while only 2.4% of them show a slight positive trend. In addition, a comparison with more detailed local case studies confirmed these observed trends. However, the obtained results for wetter stations in the southern part of the country should be taken with precaution, as the relationship between NDVI and rainfall tends to weaken when annual rainfall is higher than 1000 mm. Overall, the negative trends highlight a gradual decline in plant productivity. These results recorded in 44.7% of the analyzed stations may reflect ongoing desertification processes in the sahelian and sahelo-sudanian zones over the past two decades. At the local level, a structural characterization of woody units in three bioclimatic regions of the sudanian zone (900 mm 1200 mm) in the north of Benin was conducted to assess their degradation status. We recorded the structural characteristics of stands (basal area, density), species diversity as well as disturbances type and intensity. Multivariate analysis revealed a gradient of productivity between the three regions: there was a high diversity of woody stands in the south-sudanian sector, while the north-sudanian and sudano-sahelian sectors were dominated by savannas and shrub, which had low productivity. The productivity gradient is influenced by a disturbance gradient suggesting that the decline in productivity is stronger from south-sudanian to the sudano-sahelian region. In addition, the spatial component of the observable changes in vegetation cover has been mapped by remote sensing in a restricted area of the sudanian zone in northern Benin with SPOT-XS data over the period 1986-2005. Over the past two decades, 19.6% of the woody stands have completely disappeared; 12.9% of this extinction of woody stands was due to deforestation, and 13.9 % due to degradation processes. In contrast to these trends, 21.8% of the study area were stable, while less than a third (31.7%) of the area were experiencing woody recovery (reforestation). The analysis also reveals significant disparities in the rates of change of the identified land use class units. These variations are more pronounced for the woody units and agricultural land than in villages. These results suggest that land cover degradation throughout the study area is primarily due to anthropogenic factors (livestock and agricultural expansion, logging, breeding). In fact, this area is a preferred destination for agricultural migrants fleeing the unpredictable climatic conditions of the drier semi-arid areas. Overall, our results highlight the rapid decline of vegetation resources, challenging assumptions that the impact of ongoing desertification processes is mixed, outside of the arid and semi-arid regions of West Africa. The developed framework is easily reproducible and allows the implementation of a reliable diagnosis on the state of the vegetation cover from accessible and inexpensive data. Its implementation should facilitate the development of managerial techniques for better assistance to the poor, especially vulnerable to the gradual degradation of their environment.