Objectives & Goals

ITTECOP (Transport Infrastructures,, Territories, Ecosystems and Landscapes) is an incentive research programme led by the French Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MTE), with the support of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). Its main goal is to confront the technical challenges of LTI (Land Transport - road, rail, river and energy - Infrastructure), and their interfaces with local territories (train stations, ports, airports, etc.) while including issues related to landscape and ecosystems.

This confrontation takes into account both spatial and temporal scales, local governance conditions and all the ecological and local heritage challenges. ITTECOP’s ambition is to bring together stakeholders from diverse backgrounds (humanities and social sciences as well as life science researchers, practitioners, civil society stakeholders, etc.) around these questions, on a perennial basis. They contribute to the emergence of novel thoughts which can form a basis for public decision-makers to evaluate the impacts of LTI, especially regarding landscape and biodiversity.

• Download the programme brochure
• ITTECOP Focus
• Dissemination Tools for Shared Research

Created in 2008 as part of the first National Strategy for Biodiversity, and in close association with the Predit 4 (Land-Transport Research and Innovation Program), ITTECOP has continuously adapted to the evolving institutional context in France (French «Grenelle de l’environnement”, Grenelle laws, National Strategy for Biodiversity, Green and Blue Belt strategies, etc.), thus creating a true dynamic of involvement in favor of biodiversity and landscape preservation.

The 2020 call for research proposals (APR) encourages the development of interdisciplinary research on the interactions between linear transport infrastructure and their rights-of-way (ILTe), eco-systems at different scales: rural, peri-urban and urban territories. It takes into account their historical or geographical dynamics and landscapes, understood as the relationship between representations, perceptions and materiality.

The projects supported aim to:

• improve retrospective, present or prospective knowledge;
• to produce a conceptual and methodological framework shared between researchers and operational actors;
• integrate procedures from the life sciences, human and social sciences, and planning disciplines (architecture, urban planning, landscape design) into a coordinated approach.

ITTECOP Research Focuses

Since ITTECOP was created in 2008, it has supported 63 projects. Focusing on the relationship between landscapes, ecosystems and infrastructure, the funded projects fall under the following areas of research.

■ Regional planning

How are new landscaping constraints and land planning concerns integrated into regional projects? What are the consequences of technical and economic choices in a given physical, political and societal environment?Why and how should stakeholders be involved in drafting regional projects?

■ Ecosystems and landscapes

How do infrastructures have an interactive and retroactive effect on living spaces and natural environments? What conditions are necessary for viable interaction between areas affected by linear transport infrastructure, landscapes and ecosystems?How can infrastructure play a role in the ecological continuity of green and blue belts?

■ Prospective analyses and innovation

How can prospective analyses be used to help incorporate infrastructure into regions and assess its degree of reversibility? What is the future of areas affected by linear transport infrastructure given changing ecological, social and political contexts? How can areas affected by linear transport infrastructure adapt to increasingly important ecological constraints?

Dissemination Tools for Shared Research

In addition to supporting researchers at an international level through Horizon 2020 or the IENE, and supporting young researchers in collaboration with the IDRRIM, ITTECOP also seeks to develop several tools to foster the dessemination of funded or associated projects, thus ensuring the largest possible transfer of scientific knowledge to both public policy stakeholders and practitioners.

ITTECOP’s website: ittecop.fr

Regularly updated to keep up with the evolution of the programme and projects, the website is the privileged place for information-sharing and exchanges: between research teams, members of the Scientifc Board or Steeering Committee, and for anyone interested in the programme. Final reports and summaries of research projects are available for download.

The Webdocumentary: ittecop.fr/webdoc4-3

Didactic and interactive, it proposes to discover the projects and the programme through thematic or territorial focuses, thanks to videos, interviews and simplified access to launched actions.

The Newsletter

With over 1500 individual subscribers and counting, the ITTECOP newsletter is released twice a year and is available on the ITTECOP website dedicated to the programme. It reviews highlights and forthcoming events. Any news related to topics of the programme is welcome and can be relayed through the newsletter (events, PhD thesis defenses, publications, etc.).

ITTECOP in the networks

CILB: the Club of Linear Infrastructures and Biodiversity is an informal association seeking to deepen the common involvement of independent businesses for biodiversity.

FRB: the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity brings together over 110 structures, non-profit structures, businesses, practitioners or local authorities, around the common objective of promoting research and innovation. fondationbiodiversite.fr

IDRRIM: the Institute of Roads, Streets and Infrastructures for Mobility brings together all the public and private stakeholders involved with mobility infrastructures and urban areas. idrrim.com

IENE: Infra Eco Network Europe is an European network of experts and institutions involved in the study of phenomena linked to the fragmentation of natural habitats caused by the development of large transport infrastructure networks. iene.info