Main questions

• How is the Selune restoration project perceived by the valley's residents and users?
• What are the criteria for the success or failure of this project?
• What are the changes for agriculture and the landscape?
• How are local and international groups organising themselves around this dam removal and river restoration project?

Scientific objectives

Uses and representations

The implementation of restoration operations on a scale such as the removal of the two dams on the Selune has a major impact on the landscape and the dynamics of the area. One of the aims of this theme is to understand the uses and representations of stakeholders in this area.

To this end, the views of residents and users are first analysed in order to identify their concerns and expectations with regard to the restoration project. Finally, the controversy surrounding the governance of the dam removal project is explored. This work allows identifying the blockages, interruptions and trials experienced during the dialogue. This conflictual situation is compared with similar operations in north-west France and on the east coast of the United States. This makes it possible to identify the factors contributing to the success or failure of such restoration operations.

To read more: https://selune.hypotheses.org

Landscape changes

Landscape changes have been monitored since 2013, thanks to a photographic landscape observatory (OPP). It comprises 90 observation points spread across the Selune basin, photographed each season. This work is being carried out in partnership with the University of Paris-Nanterre and the Selune basin syndicate (Syndicat mixte du bassin de la Sélune). All the photos from this OPP are available online on the SISélune mapping portal or directly on the website of the Syndicat mixte du bassin de la Sélune.

More broadly, an effort has been made to monitor changes in the landscape since the 1950s (remote sensing: satellite images, images acquired by drone overflight and Lidar). Surveys of farming practices have also been carried out to complete the analysis and understand the links between agriculture and landscapes in the Selune valley.

On the right: Example of remote sensing analysis: quantification of vegetation cover on drone images acquired at two different periods (winter and spring 2015).