ITTECOP is a research programme run by the French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE) in coordination with the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). Its main aim is to explore technical infrastructure issues (affecting river, rail and road transport, as well as regional interfaces such as train stations, ports and airports) with respect to landscapes in the regions concerned. This may include spatial and temporal dimensions, regional governance issues or ecological factors. ITTECOP hopes to help develop a lasting research community that evaluates the impacts of land-transport infrastructure (LTI) and anticipates public decision-making needs in the fields of infrastructure, landscapes and biodiversity.
The 2012-2015 prorgramme builds on experience gained through projects launched since 2008-2009. It also takes into account changes to the institutional context (such as the Grenelle environmental forum, the French biodiversity strategy and the development of green and blue trames or belts). ITTECOP is also connected to two of MEDDE’s other operational programmes:
1) Restoring ecological continuity in existing transport infrastructure run by the Directorate for Water and Biodiversity (11 projects financed in 2012),
2) The call for proposals for experimental operations compensating damage to biodiversity run by the economic evaluation service (4 projects selected in 2012).
A programme essential for decision-making
A call for proposals was launched in 2012 under the direction of Bruno Villalba, chairman of the scientific board and political scientist in environmental issues at Sciences Po Lille. ITTECOP’s main focuses were reinforced: encouraging interdisciplinarity (from the theoretical and scientific facilitation points of view), basing research on real projects (in coordination with LTI operators), developing public decision-making tools, taking into account landscapes’ different dimensions, sharing knowledge with decision-making networks and taking a prospective approach to global environmental issues. Priority was given to two areas of research:
The first questions the relationship between regions, landscapes and projects. LTI are part of areas that have their own identity (from the historical, landscape and ecological points of view). How do local actors develop regional project(s) that integrate and create new perspectives for infrastructure?
The second concerns LTI and landscape dynamics: interactions between ecological and socio-economic systems. How are new constraints related to LTI creation affecting landscapes (such as biodiversity management and ecosystem functioning) and territorial administration (including compensation measures and ecological continuity) managed?
The seven projects financed explore the idea that new infrastructure has an impact on a region’s future, and therefore should be part of a regional project that deals with interactions between human and natural environments. Infrastructural impacts must be analysed on different regional scales (which can be very large, depending on the issues) and considered from an ecological (with respect to ecosystems, species, etc.), social (the different kinds of actors), economic (the different activities affected by infrastructure) and heritage points of view.
Plateformes
Multimodal transport and service centres : Delta 3 - Dourges, canal Seine-Nord Europe, Eterpigny-Barleuxhe
Fabrice Raffin, UPJV Université de Picardie Amiens
Other partners:Laboratoire EDYSAN (Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes ANthropisés), UPJV; SEA Europe (Sociologues et Ethnologues Associés), Paris; Passeurs (Paysagistes DPLG associés), Bordeaux.
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
D-TRANSECT
Those left behind as a result of the Huveaune Valley crossings: species dispersal, vernacular practices and the mediation of landscapes
Frédéric Poussin, LAREP / Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Paysage de Versailles
Other partners: CRESSON Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Grenoble, LPED UMR IRD/Université Aix Marseille
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
ECOFRICH
The ecological and social future of zones – wastelands, housing and cultivated areas – surrounding the Grand Stade de Lille Métropole. An analysis of planned LTI, urban operations and alternative solutions
Alain Lepretre, Université Lille 1 Sciences & Technologies - LGCgE Lille Nord de France – EA4515 - Ecologie Numérique et Ecotoxicologie and Bénédicte Lefebvre, MESHS, USR 3185
Other partners: CLERSE ; LAVUE, Architecture Urbanisme et Sociétés (AUS); CETE Nord-Picardie
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
GRAPHAB 2
Using landscape graphs to evaluate and mitigate the impacts of major transport infrastructure on species
Jean-Christophe Foltête, ThéMA UMR 6049
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
IMPACT
LTI and landscape modelling as part of an ongoing appraisal of regional impacts
Eric Barbe, Irstea UMR Tetis.
Other partners:Région Languedoc Roussillon; DREAL Languedoc Roussillon; Conservatoire des Espaces Naturels Languedoc Roussillon; Cogard; Chambre d'Agriculture du Gard; INEXIA; RFF; Agence d’urbanisme de Nîmes Métropole
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
Jumelage-ITT
Evaluating the effects of combined LTI on how the region functions and is viewed
Michel Deshaies, Université de Nancy 2, geography department
Other partners: LAE UMR 1121; TRIANGLE UMR CNRS 5206; CETE de l’Est; CETE de Lyon; CETE Méditerranée
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
NATURE-ROUTE
Nature on the side of the road – 2
Grégoire Chelkoff and Magali Paris CRESSON, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble
Other partners: CETE Ile-de-France; CETE Nord-Picardie; UMR Environnement et Grandes Cultures (EGC) de Agroparistech; SETRA; CERTU; foreign research teams: Permacouture Institute (San Francisco-California-United States) and the Atelier de Arquitectura (Lisbon-Portugal)
Download the project presentation in English (april 2014)
GRAPHAB
Landscape graphs and assessment of the impact of the high-speed Rhine-Rhone railway line on the spatial connectivity of habitats : consequences on species distributions.
Contact: jean-christophe.foltete[at]univ-fcomte.fr
OFP
What will become of the local railway-transport infrastructure ? Study and perspective on the local railway operator of the Centre region. Contact: guillaume.vera-navas[at]@appa.asso.fr (abstract)
INTERMOPES
Railway and road land-transport infrastructure and changes induced in the landscapes, ecosystems and society : Analysis and proposal for methods and operational instruments.
Contact: sylvie.vanpeene[at]@cemagref.fr (abstract)
Cergy
Road infrastructures, landscapes and ecosystems : Methodological research based on road projects in progress on Cergy-Pontoise civil parish territory: the case of the roads projected in the Cergy-Pontoise area. Join for an update and innovative project the provision of knowledge, social demand from stake-holders, impacts assessment and the search for sustainable urban planning logical integration of the knowledge, social expectations, impact assessment and thinking on a sustainable project.
Contact: wthales[at]club-internet.fr (abstract)
Nature-Route
Nature on the side of the road : The case of community gardens in the greater Grenoble area. Contact: gregoire.chelkoff[at]grenoble.archi.fr and parismagali[at]yahoo.fr (abstract)
Bien-être
Environmental well-being, quality of life and land-sensitive relationships. Improving landscape integration and understanding the living environment to improve the social approval of large land-transport infrastructure.
Contact: guillaume.faburel[at]univ-lyon2.fr
Lynx
Developing a model to diagnose interactions amongst landscape structure, land-transport infrastructure and emblematic species: Case of the lynx in the Jura Mountains.
Contact: gaillard[at]biomserv.univ-lyon1.f
En marge …
The theme considered in the project below, financed by the PIRVE (www.pirve.fr), places the project amongst ITTECOP follow-up and facilitation actions. Landscape and biodiversity of those neglected by the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis infrastructure. Contact: denis.delbaere[at]linterlieu.fr