Study of Rhodanien Watersheds (East France)

The river margins of floodplains in the temperate zone are normally forested. These forests
are characterized by a vegetal mosaic which is extremely diversified, but which equally has
a social and economic importance. The riparian forest structures valley landscapes,
influences hydraulics, fluvial forms, sediment and organic matter transfers.

Forest corridor filters coarse woody debris. Their mass are quickly reduced
from the channel-forest contact to the internal part of the forest.

By protecting cultivated floodplains from erosion and major flooding and by afforesting
watersheds, Sarde or French state services favored, directly or indirectly, tree growth in the
riparian corridors of the Giffre and Ubaye rivers.

Although these forests are recent, they are in danger. As they become increasingly
disconnected or subdivided.

Similar to other wetlands, floodplain forests must be taken into account by managers. In
some cases, conservation measures are necessary. In other cases, restoration or at least
rehabilitation must be favored on very damaged reaches. Moreover, maintenance policies
must be encouraged, organized and sectorized.
Eco-landscape Corridor

The river landscape constitutes a heterogeneous mosaic of geoforms, sedimentary facies,

plant groups and unevenly anthropized units. This mosaic has recently appeared as
interesting not only at the ecological level but also at the landscape, heritage, hydraulic,
social, economic level... The flood forest is both an original eco-landscape corridor and a
useful buffer space for risk management, im majority, deciduous trees (feuilles).

The corridor also has a key hydraulic role that can be taken into account in the management
of erosion and flood risks, an ability to filter overflow waters, sediments and coarse organic
inputs. The alluvial forest exerts a sedimentary filter of exceptional efficiency. Lateral
reduction in sediment size is rapid on high-energy wooded edges.

As highlighted by the particle size analyses carried out following the flood of September 22,
1992 on the Ouvèze, this event is not exceptional at 40 m from the river axis under forest.
Samples taken at different depths in the silts that make up the major bed, show that the
median size of the sediments deposited during the last flood is smaller than that of the
sediments deposited during the previous floods, which is not the case for the wooded area
near the bed, characterized by recent sediments much coarser than those deposited during
previous events. In addition, the analysis in plan reveals that during this exceptional flood,
the pebbles and gravel were blocked from the edge and the transit of the sands took place
for only 25 m inside the wooded corridor. Thus, important rivers should not be considered as
simple transport organizations, Their margins are able to retain a significant part of the
suspended load.
In Ubaya, the vegetation manifested itself spontaneously in the narrow frame of the minor
bed a few decades after the reforestation of watersheds by the R.T.M. Service. The
reforestation word began in the 80s and started to influence river dynamics in the 20s (40
years later), reduction of solid load and flood peaks.

The progressive destruction of natural space granted to the river in 1945 at the same time
appears in the forest. This is therefore affected by this development at the risk of no longer
being constituted shreds. Or a wooded, but discontinuous, does not present the same
ecological potentialities and the same efficiency with regard to the erosion and flooding
that a continuous strip is in risk. In addition to the reduction and destructuring of riparian
space, sinking of the long profile also contributes to altering the ecological quality of the
corridor. In fact, the water table can also push this movement disrupting plant and animal
species. (Reich, 1994).

The current increasingly permanent occupation has a low tolerance to floods, a low
adaptation to the mobility of the environment. Most often, residents recommend increasing
bank protections, which gradually induces a stabilization of the channel and undermines the
functional characteristics of the system. The gradual occupation of the wooded or
non-wooded riparian area is linked to the development of multiple uses, such as aggregate
extraction, tourism, agriculture... On the Ain, the influence of the modern plain is first linked
to agriculture (200 ha) with development of highly mechanized cereal farming and in
particular irrigated corn. The quarries that have an even greater footprint, are estimated at
nearly 300 ha. Leisure infrastructure, about twenty campsites have been identified, are also
space consuming. (Combe, 1991)

Three strong themes make it possible to structure and guide the proposed management
strategies: preservation, rehabilitation and maintenance.

Even if the wooded areas bordering rivers have increased overall over the past 50 years,
conservation is an action that should be carried out urgently. Quality alluvial forests are
becoming scarce and thus take on heritage value. The originality of these spaces lies in the
fact that biodiversity is primarily based on the richness of processes. The preservation policy
is difficult to implement with flexible legal tools given that it is based on a space and not a
particular species. It is only by preserving the instability of river forms that the sustainability
of species, genes and groups will be maintained.

Only rehabilitation, a restorative action intended to give the river greater natural diversity, is
conceivable, the question being what objectives to remember. Beyond the ethical and
patrimonial necessity, the economic imperative is gradually put forward by the
administration. Rehabilitating a plant corridor means mitigating the risk of flooding and
promoting self-purification.

The maintenance action is above all anthropocentric. In most cases, the ecosystem is
self-maintenance. The objective is in fact to maintain a certain flow capacity, limit bank
erosion and offer users a more human space. Interventions therefore most often go against
the ecological and physical balance of watercourses. It is for this reason that Denmark has
changed.