Our objectives here were to illustrate the secular evolution of the Seine River and
its related water bodies in order to quantify the trajectories of their physical evolution
in their triple dimension – longitudinal, transversal and vertical – based on historical
maps. Herein the trajectories are considered as the combination of (1) a set of
quantified indicators of changes, natural, man-made or both and (2) the analysis of
the historical causes and the context of these changes.
The first section of the chapter is a general overview of the multiple river uses in
the Seine basin and the related man-made physical transformations of water bodies,
from the headwaters to the estuary. Then we present the historical cartographic
sources and the methodology that have been developed to transform them into GIS
databases. In the last section we present a selection of trajectories in headwater
streams, a river floodplain and the Seine River channel, based on cartographic
archives covering the last 200 years.
2 The Physical Anthropogenic Transformation of the Seine
River (1800–2010)
The river hydrological network is schematised here using the Strahler representation
of stream orders, from the first permanent headwater streams (stream order 1) to the
mouth of the Seine River (stream order 7) (Fig. 1). The stream order increases when
two streams of similar n orders meet to form a n + 1 order. In the Seine basin, the
5,610 stream order 1 rivers are on average 0.07 m deep and 1.76 km long and drain
5.7 km
2 [23]. These parameters reach their maximum values for the 438-km-long
Seine River from its confluence with the Yonne River to the sea (stream order 7). We
have considered two schematic pictures of the basin, one around 1800 and the other
represents the contemporary period (2010s).
2.1 Transformations of Seine Water Bodies in the Early
1800s and Their Drivers
Before the French Revolution, the river basin was already somehow affected by
human activities (Fig. 1, upper part).
In agricultural land, the headwater network was not significantly modified
(Fig. 1a). However, in the headwaters of the forested Morvan mountainous massif
(Yonne tributary headwaters, altitude 600–900 m), many medium-sized ponds
(<3 ha) regulated water reservoirs for timber rafting. High flows were generated
in November to allow the transportation of “free” logs, 1.14 m long, from the
Morvan to the city of Clamecy, where they were stored for several months and
eventually assembled and released downstream as 36- then 72-m-long rafts by the
spring high flows. This usage had a considerable effect on rivers, due to bank erosion
and regular high discharges [24]. Timber rafting, which started in the sixteenth
century, was generated by Paris’s demand for construction and fuel wood, peaked
The Evolution of the Seine Basin Water Bodies Through Historical Maps
31
its related water bodies in order to quantify the trajectories of their physical evolution
in their triple dimension – longitudinal, transversal and vertical – based on historical
maps. Herein the trajectories are considered as the combination of (1) a set of
quantified indicators of changes, natural, man-made or both and (2) the analysis of
the historical causes and the context of these changes.
The first section of the chapter is a general overview of the multiple river uses in
the Seine basin and the related man-made physical transformations of water bodies,
from the headwaters to the estuary. Then we present the historical cartographic
sources and the methodology that have been developed to transform them into GIS
databases. In the last section we present a selection of trajectories in headwater
streams, a river floodplain and the Seine River channel, based on cartographic
archives covering the last 200 years.
2 The Physical Anthropogenic Transformation of the Seine
River (1800–2010)
The river hydrological network is schematised here using the Strahler representation
of stream orders, from the first permanent headwater streams (stream order 1) to the
mouth of the Seine River (stream order 7) (Fig. 1). The stream order increases when
two streams of similar n orders meet to form a n + 1 order. In the Seine basin, the
5,610 stream order 1 rivers are on average 0.07 m deep and 1.76 km long and drain
5.7 km
2 [23]. These parameters reach their maximum values for the 438-km-long
Seine River from its confluence with the Yonne River to the sea (stream order 7). We
have considered two schematic pictures of the basin, one around 1800 and the other
represents the contemporary period (2010s).
2.1 Transformations of Seine Water Bodies in the Early
1800s and Their Drivers
Before the French Revolution, the river basin was already somehow affected by
human activities (Fig. 1, upper part).
In agricultural land, the headwater network was not significantly modified
(Fig. 1a). However, in the headwaters of the forested Morvan mountainous massif
(Yonne tributary headwaters, altitude 600–900 m), many medium-sized ponds
(<3 ha) regulated water reservoirs for timber rafting. High flows were generated
in November to allow the transportation of “free” logs, 1.14 m long, from the
Morvan to the city of Clamecy, where they were stored for several months and
eventually assembled and released downstream as 36- then 72-m-long rafts by the
spring high flows. This usage had a considerable effect on rivers, due to bank erosion
and regular high discharges [24]. Timber rafting, which started in the sixteenth
century, was generated by Paris’s demand for construction and fuel wood, peaked
The Evolution of the Seine Basin Water Bodies Through Historical Maps
31