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Irrigation canals as tools for climate change adaptation and fish biodiversity management in Southern France

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Abstract

This paper is based on the interdisciplinary research conducted in the south of France that analyses the different economic, social and environmental roles played by agricultural irrigation canals. We argue that beyond their productive role, which is to supply farmers with water, they fulfil other environmental services and play an important role in the context of future climate change to face challenges of adaptation. We point up several ecosystem services provided by such canals, e.g. replenishing the groundwater table, the development of riparian vegetation and wet areas in the Mediterranean zone, tools for regulating flooding and drought, the bases for new cultural approaches to nature. Moreover, they play an important role in the maintenance of an ichthyological biodiversity that is indispensable for the persistence of natural ecosystem. Functioning as an ecological corridor, they display interesting capacities as refuges for certain fish species under stress. Indeed, they can potentially connect upstream and downstream zones over a continuum of more than 300 km and thus covering very contrasted climatic zones (alpine versus Mediterranean). For now, most of these services remain largely unknown and underestimated. However, they serve as assets for territorial development since they combine economic, ecological and social factors whose remodelling is becoming increasingly necessary in the face of climate change.

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Notes

  1. The Crau or the Crau plain is a paleo-delta of the Durance near the Camargue in the Bouches-du-Rhône department.

  2. Planning law n°2009-967 of 3 August 2009 on the implementation of the Grenelle Environnement, JORF n°0179, supplemented in 2010 by law n°2010-788 of 12 July 2010 on the national commitment to the environment, completed on 1 January 2014.

  3. Law on risks n°2003-699 of 30 July 2003, Decree n°2005-115 of 7 February 2005 implementing articles L. 211-7 and L. 213-10 of the Code de l'environnement and article L. 151-37-1 of the Code rural.

  4. Art. R. 371-16 of decree n°2012-1492 of 27 December 2012.

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Acknowledgments

Our research project HYODA (“Hydro-sociosystème—Durance—Acteurs”), Practices and social representations of environmental water. The Durance canals as the backdrop for new ecological, economic and social issues is financially supported by the Agence de l’Eau Rhône Méditerranée Corse and Electricité de France (EDF).

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  1. IRD, LPED UMR D 151, Aix Marseille Université, 13331, Marseille, France

    Chantal Aspe & Marie Jacqué

  2. IMBE (UMR CNRS 7263, IRD 237) ‘Evolution Génome Environnement’, CNRS, IRD, Avignon Université, Aix-Marseille Université, 13397, Marseille, France

    Chantal Aspe & André Gilles

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  1. Chantal Aspe
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Correspondence to Marie Jacqué.

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Aspe, C., Gilles, A. & Jacqué, M. Irrigation canals as tools for climate change adaptation and fish biodiversity management in Southern France. Reg Environ Change 16, 1975–1984 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0695-8

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