Les bassins fluviaux, vecteurs de l'aménagement du territoire

River basins, vehicles for regional development

Président de l'Association pour l'Aménagement de la Vallée du Lot

Abstract

Rivers (and their tributaries) are living organisms; their specificity lies in the fact that they are unique in a geographic and time sense with a strong interaction between upstream and dowstream. Whereas, the user only considers the river from his particular point of view. In the past, people rarely took the upstream-dowstream logic into consideration. They used the part of the river that interested them without worrying about the effect of their use on the totality of the waterway. For a long time, uses with direct financial returns had priority over non-commercial uses which were considered without consequence on the local economy.

Water's uniqueness is often confronted with an excess of what are often antagonistic role players: the State and its departments, the local authorities and the users among which are distinguished those who exploit and pollute as well as those who protect. Overexploiting can destroy a river, while overprotecting can undermine the local economy around the catchment Basin.

Rivers are wholly capable of providing leverage for economic development on the condition that an integrated management of the catchment basin is implemented. Consequently, in order to do this, a better understanding of the environment is needed, and the target goals must he defined according to use. This has to be carried out with a permanent concern for maintaining the living system in good condition and within the logic of a lasting development.