Riverscapes. Une éco-géographie biophysique pour en appréhender la complexité.: Un voyage scientifique et introspectif dans et à travers les hydrosystèmes fluviaux.

Résumé fourni par la source

This work, which constitutes the original essay of my Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR), provides a comprehensive assessment of my scientific journey since the PhD – and even earlier – marked by the discovery of fluvial hydrosystems and a number of disciplines that study them. Its purpose is to assert a scientific identity, that of an eco-geographer of riverscapes, and to outline a future trajectory oriented towards a better understanding, preservation, and management of fluvial environments. The manuscript is divided into two complementary parts. The first part illustrates and discusses the riverscape approach – through notions such as hydrosystem, complexity, heterogeneity, and spatio-temporal scales – and shows how it fits within French and international biophysical geography, in relation to my own trajectory. The second part addresses the approaches and methods applied to the study of fluvial landscapes, built upon the triptych of biophysical geography–landscape ecology–remote sensing. Four hypotheses guide the analysis: an integrated landscape approach, consideration of the behavioral dimension of rivers, multi-scale comparisons, and the role of hydrosystems as sentinels. Overall, the work advocates for collective and interdisciplinary research, in which understanding the links between structures, functions, and dynamics of fluvial hydrosystems makes it possible to address, in a systemic way, the health of riverscapes and associated socio-ecosystems in the face of global environmental change.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.