(e.g. meander movement) and their abrupt modifications by man-made river works
due to various and evolving river use (water supply, wood rafting, navigation,
hydropower, sand extraction, flood protection), all closely connected to Paris growing demands, and the adjustments of the fluvial system to these changes. From
headwaters to the estuary, the physical attributes of the Seine River system have
been substantially modified. Examples of such environmental trajectories are provided for the Versailles plateau headwaters, the Bassée alluvial plain and the Lower
Seine sector.
Keywords Environmental trajectories, Geo-history, Historical maps, Secular
evolution, Waterbodies
1 Introduction
Rivers and their physical evolution are prime examples of the longue durée (multisecular) spatial evolution of the environment, particularly as concerns the hydromorphology of the fluvial system – the river channel(s) and the floodplain at the
maximum flood stage [1], ecology [2] and the river landscape [3].
More recently river management and restoration operation have also considered
the historical evolution of the fluvial system [4], for instance, to restore the ecological continuity or to take regulatory measures to face extreme events such as
droughts and floods. To achieve these objectives, historical data, textual and cartographic, have been increasingly developed since the 1960s. This has been facilitated
over the last three decades by the new geographic information system (GIS) techniques and the digitalisation of maps, which allows the analysis of selected cartographic elements represented on a given map, and the comparison of maps, which
makes it possible to evaluate spatial dynamics [5–8].
Historical cartographic documents have already been analysed for environmental
purposes on many European fluvial systems such as the Po [9], the Rhône [10], the
Danube [11] and the Rhine [12]. This approach has also been used by river historians
[13–16] and to compare the river-city relations for four main European cities (Paris,
Brussels, Berlin and Milan) [17].
In natural conditions, numerous factors may change the hydrology and hydromorphology of rivers, which in turn have an impact on the river hydraulics and on
sediment transport, including the floodplain [18, 19]. The response of the fluvial
system to historical man-made changes is less known. In many contemporaneous
environmental studies, focused on annual to decadal time scales, the slow secular
river evolution is not taken into account: the physical attributes of the river are
considered invariant, particularly as concerns the river morphology, and the past
natural- or human-induced transformations of the system are not considered. Actually the Seine River system has been gradually modified since the Middle Ages,
particularly between the mid-1800s and the 1970s for navigation purpose, from the
headwaters to the estuary [20], by sand and gravel extraction in alluvial plains [21]
and evolving floodplains and wetlands [22].
30
L. Lestel et al.
due to various and evolving river use (water supply, wood rafting, navigation,
hydropower, sand extraction, flood protection), all closely connected to Paris growing demands, and the adjustments of the fluvial system to these changes. From
headwaters to the estuary, the physical attributes of the Seine River system have
been substantially modified. Examples of such environmental trajectories are provided for the Versailles plateau headwaters, the Bassée alluvial plain and the Lower
Seine sector.
Keywords Environmental trajectories, Geo-history, Historical maps, Secular
evolution, Waterbodies
1 Introduction
Rivers and their physical evolution are prime examples of the longue durée (multisecular) spatial evolution of the environment, particularly as concerns the hydromorphology of the fluvial system – the river channel(s) and the floodplain at the
maximum flood stage [1], ecology [2] and the river landscape [3].
More recently river management and restoration operation have also considered
the historical evolution of the fluvial system [4], for instance, to restore the ecological continuity or to take regulatory measures to face extreme events such as
droughts and floods. To achieve these objectives, historical data, textual and cartographic, have been increasingly developed since the 1960s. This has been facilitated
over the last three decades by the new geographic information system (GIS) techniques and the digitalisation of maps, which allows the analysis of selected cartographic elements represented on a given map, and the comparison of maps, which
makes it possible to evaluate spatial dynamics [5–8].
Historical cartographic documents have already been analysed for environmental
purposes on many European fluvial systems such as the Po [9], the Rhône [10], the
Danube [11] and the Rhine [12]. This approach has also been used by river historians
[13–16] and to compare the river-city relations for four main European cities (Paris,
Brussels, Berlin and Milan) [17].
In natural conditions, numerous factors may change the hydrology and hydromorphology of rivers, which in turn have an impact on the river hydraulics and on
sediment transport, including the floodplain [18, 19]. The response of the fluvial
system to historical man-made changes is less known. In many contemporaneous
environmental studies, focused on annual to decadal time scales, the slow secular
river evolution is not taken into account: the physical attributes of the river are
considered invariant, particularly as concerns the river morphology, and the past
natural- or human-induced transformations of the system are not considered. Actually the Seine River system has been gradually modified since the Middle Ages,
particularly between the mid-1800s and the 1970s for navigation purpose, from the
headwaters to the estuary [20], by sand and gravel extraction in alluvial plains [21]
and evolving floodplains and wetlands [22].
30
L. Lestel et al.