Controlling or rewilding the river: local expressions of a tension between revitalization and risk control, case study of the Vistre plain

The Vistre plain is subject to a hydraulic functioning specific to Mediterranean regimes, notably characterized by intense and short episodes of heavy rainfall, and rapid to torrential flooding kinetics. To guard against risks, the public management institutions of the drainage basin have gradually put in place a set of devices consisting of best practices, administrative tools, technical infrastructure, vigilance and flood forecasting services, crisis management plans and awareness programs. During the 2014 flood episode, these institutions agreed on the fact that many damages were limited thanks to the works built, since 2007, within the framework of flood prevention plans. However, it is important to question these devices in light of the challenge of requalification that this highly anthropized river presents. Indeed, the academic sphere as well as the operational sector have recently demonstrated a desire to go beyond the diametric opposition between anthropic and ecological interests to renew the questioning on socio-ecological interdependencies. This opposition is challenged, in particular, by the counter-productivity of certain measures aimed at protecting oneself from nature: the artificialization of the functioning of rivers can increase the risk of flooding.

These considerations are part of the objectives of the syndicate in charge of managing the Vistre. Since 2002, it has explicitly chosen a policy of revitalization (or renaturation) rather than restoration (or rehabilitation) of the Vistre. We hypothesize that this political choice contributes to the local emergence of a tension between protecting and being protected from nature. This poster will present the first results of a survey by semi-directive interviews and questionnaires conducted with stakeholders (inhabitants, associations and institutions), aiming to better understand the evolution of the perception of socio-ecological interdependencies at work around the revitalization projects in the Vistre Plain. This understanding, based on the collection of local representations and practices, will shed light on the conditions of conciliation between revitalization and flood protection policies.