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A. Curd and A. Pibot
biodiversity data via national portals. The SINP (Système d’Information sur la Nature
et les Paysages—www.naturefrance.fr) is responsible for organizing and structuring
marine and terrestrial biodiversity and landscape diversity data within the French
territory. Due to its dual management of ecological and landscape data and to the
multiple disciplines in which the SINP stakeholders are grounded, an overarching
definition of marine landscapes has yet to be fully adopted.
The SINP’s mandate, as defined in the state bill published on the 11th July 2007
(http://www.naturefrance.fr/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/circulaire_sinp_et_
protocole.pdf), adopts the landscape definition set in the European Landscape
Convention (also known as the Florence Convention http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/
cultureheritage/heritage/Landscape/default_en.asp), whereby the landscape is an
expanse of scenery that can been seen in a single view, whose character is the result
of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. This definition has
hindered the development of a landscape perception in the sub-aquatic environment.
Starting from the justifiable principle that the marine environment is uninhabited
by humans, the very notion of an underwater landscape, “as perceived by the
local population”, is fanciful. This is no doubt one of the reasons why landscape
terminology in the marine environment, an innovative interdisciplinary concept, has
so far revolved far more around notions of landscape ecology than those of human
perception of their environment.
During the workshop some headway was made towards an objective definition
of marine landscapes, as perceived by the transient populations of SCUBA-divers,
a human activity with increasing popularity in coastal waters. New techniques of
underwater landscape reconstitution from multiple tiled images help to compensate
the lack of depth of field necessary for perceiving a seascape in turbid waters. In
Fig. 10.1, the “roches de Coulombray” off the south coast of France in the LanguedocRoussillon region is impossible to naturally see in its entirety.
Here the diver-photographers of “Andromède océanologie” have reconstituted the
seascape by tiling multiple images, an example of how new technologies are allowing
us to “discover” previously unobserved underwater landscapes.
10.2 The Legal Context of the SINP
The Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992 (http://www.cbd.int/convention/
text/), together with the Florence Convention of 2000 jointly led to the drafting of a French National Biodiversity Strategy. This strategy, both during its
2002–2010 period and in its 2011–2020 revision (http://www.developpementdurable.gouv.fr/French-strategy-for-biodiversity,23446.html), places landscapes on
the same level as genetic, specific and ecosystem diversity as a pillar in the
preservation and sustainable management of natural heritage.
For the purpose of these proceedings, we therefore consider that there are two
ways through which the SINP can help to apprehend landscapes; either via a societal,
anthropocentric approach (i.e. via the human perception of scenery), or through an
A. Curd and A. Pibot
biodiversity data via national portals. The SINP (Système d’Information sur la Nature
et les Paysages—www.naturefrance.fr) is responsible for organizing and structuring
marine and terrestrial biodiversity and landscape diversity data within the French
territory. Due to its dual management of ecological and landscape data and to the
multiple disciplines in which the SINP stakeholders are grounded, an overarching
definition of marine landscapes has yet to be fully adopted.
The SINP’s mandate, as defined in the state bill published on the 11th July 2007
(http://www.naturefrance.fr/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/circulaire_sinp_et_
protocole.pdf), adopts the landscape definition set in the European Landscape
Convention (also known as the Florence Convention http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/
cultureheritage/heritage/Landscape/default_en.asp), whereby the landscape is an
expanse of scenery that can been seen in a single view, whose character is the result
of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. This definition has
hindered the development of a landscape perception in the sub-aquatic environment.
Starting from the justifiable principle that the marine environment is uninhabited
by humans, the very notion of an underwater landscape, “as perceived by the
local population”, is fanciful. This is no doubt one of the reasons why landscape
terminology in the marine environment, an innovative interdisciplinary concept, has
so far revolved far more around notions of landscape ecology than those of human
perception of their environment.
During the workshop some headway was made towards an objective definition
of marine landscapes, as perceived by the transient populations of SCUBA-divers,
a human activity with increasing popularity in coastal waters. New techniques of
underwater landscape reconstitution from multiple tiled images help to compensate
the lack of depth of field necessary for perceiving a seascape in turbid waters. In
Fig. 10.1, the “roches de Coulombray” off the south coast of France in the LanguedocRoussillon region is impossible to naturally see in its entirety.
Here the diver-photographers of “Andromède océanologie” have reconstituted the
seascape by tiling multiple images, an example of how new technologies are allowing
us to “discover” previously unobserved underwater landscapes.
10.2 The Legal Context of the SINP
The Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992 (http://www.cbd.int/convention/
text/), together with the Florence Convention of 2000 jointly led to the drafting of a French National Biodiversity Strategy. This strategy, both during its
2002–2010 period and in its 2011–2020 revision (http://www.developpementdurable.gouv.fr/French-strategy-for-biodiversity,23446.html), places landscapes on
the same level as genetic, specific and ecosystem diversity as a pillar in the
preservation and sustainable management of natural heritage.
For the purpose of these proceedings, we therefore consider that there are two
ways through which the SINP can help to apprehend landscapes; either via a societal,
anthropocentric approach (i.e. via the human perception of scenery), or through an