[Démo] Application mobile Nos pollutions - Le crowdsourcing au service de l'environnement pour caractériser les pollutions visibles

L'application mobile Nos pollutions a comme objectif de produire, par le grand public, des informations d'observation de pollutions environnementales, notamment de déchets agricoles, mais aussi toutes autres formes de pollutions. Ces observations spatialisées contribueront à l'évaluation des différentes perceptions du grand public vis-à-vis des pollutions présentes en Guadeloupe. Afin de faciliter la création d'un large processus collectif d'observation et de surveillance de l'environnement, le prototype a été développé pour l'environnement Android, afin de permettre aux utilisateurs de transmettre leurs observations d'objets polluants. Les perspectives ouvertes par ce prototype sont nombreuses en termes d'identification et de remédiation de sources de pollution

A monitoring system for preventive control of Desert Locust in West Africa

Agricultural pests like the Desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål 1775), often migrate across borders and cause major losses and emergencies. In the past, such damage often led to famines and sometimes triggered trade restrictions. An international preventive strategy is currently recommended in each country on early warning and reaction capacities. As a result, the extent and frequency of invasions were considerably reduced during the last 50 years. However, countries are frequently unable to react sufficiently quickly to nip outbreaks in the bud, and late extensive emergency operations, with large use of pesticides as well as international assistance, became necessary. The Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES, Desert Locust component) was established by FAO in order to minimize the risk of such emergencies. In Western and Northern Africa, EMPRES was implemented in 2006 to develop a more effective early survey and a better preventive management of Desert locust populations in their reproduction areas. Enhancing national capacities and building a common system for monitoring each national preventive control was considered as a priority. Such a tool was developed by French CIRAD in 2009 and is a main component of the "National Locust Risk Management Plans". This software, using a simple web interface, is built around a database. All data from 10 West African national Locust control units, about infrastructures, materials, human resources and financial means, were collected and organized in the database. The frequency of the updates is connected to the nature of information, from 3 to 12 months and performed at the country level. Real-time consultations, codifications and outputs are made easily by the internet. This system allows a real-time collection/dissemination of information and a better organization of preventive control at the regional level, key points to improve management of Desert locust risk. (Résumé d'auteur

Ecole-acteurs aux Antilles, un espace de représentation partagée de la question des pollutions agricoles

Le projet RIVAGE analyse les mécanismes et les impacts de la pollution diffuse dans le bassin versant le bassin versant de la rivière Pérou en Guadeloupe. L'approche se veut pluridisciplinaire, intégratrive et territoriale. Pour faciliter la prise en compte des résultats dans l'élaboration des politiques publiques, le projet a créé une école-acteurs, L'école-acteurs est conçue comme un espace d'échanges, un " espace relationnel permanent" pour susciter des débats avec des acteurs divers autour de thématiques d'intérêts communs, décidées par l'ensemble du groupe, des méthodologies et des résultats des différentes recherches. Du point de vue théorique, l'école acteur fait références aux théorises des représentations sociales. La communication rappelle ses références théoriques et justifie les actions menées en fonction de ce référentiel. L'évaluation de l'outil ne peut encore être faite mais les premières sessions rencontrent un fort intérêt des participants, qui apprécient la liberté d'échanger en dépassant les contraintes et les postures institutionnelles

Designing and modelling a shared representation to support changes in agricultural practices in Guadeloupe A school of stakeholders of the territory

Agriculture can have negative impacts on the environment, such as pesticide contamination of water. The relationships between agricultural practices and environmental impacts are complex. To improve the quality of the environment and agricultural products, solutions require an interest in both physical processes (e. g. transfer of contaminants) and human processes in order to set up a system for evaluating and monitoring innovations in agriculture. The action-research territory is a set of watersheds in Guadeloupe, with high banana production and historically marked by a serious pollution from farming, using chlordecone (kepone) between the 1970s and 1990s. The aim of the support of the stakeholders is to facilitate the learning process for the change of agricultural practices. Modelling is the privileged tool for research to represent dynamics and simulate consequences of action, even before implementing experiments. We use the DPSIR model (Driving Forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses), a robust qualitative model of the European Environment Agency for monitoring and evaluating environmental policies, to enable the exchange of views for collective learning processes. The partners involved are the various stakeholders of the territory: farmers and players in agricultural development, land managers, associations, inhabitants, consumers, and the scientific community, which we regularly gather in sessions of a "school of stakeholders" of the territory

EcoPalm: A new model simulating seasonal variation of palm yield : I. Day lenght sensitivity of flowering and competition among sinks explain bunch number

Seasonal variation of fresh bunch production is difficult to explain and predict. A population scale model, EcoPalm, was developed to explain those using new physiological hypotheses. A central hypothesis was that day length influences time of flowering during a photosensitive period (PSP) at the scale of individual fronds (phytomers). The variable PSP duration between successive phytomers result in a queue of phytomers in "waiting state", which partly explains seasonal variations. The monthly, potential number of harvested bunches, based on a 100% sex ratio, and the absence of abortions and failures of fruit set, was simulated. The second hypothesis was that sex ratio, intensity of bunch abortion and bunch failure, , depend on the trophic status of a given phytomer during sensitive phases of its development, expressed through a plant-scale Index of Competition for assimilates (Ic), which is the ratio between instantaneous assimilate supply and aggregate demand. Annual demand for vegetative organ growth was assumed to be constant (stabilized growth). Bunch dry matter production was assumed to be variable. If Ic < 1 during sensitive stages of bunch development, (high competition among sinks), sex ratio was considered to be low and abortion and bunch failure high. If Ic > 1, sex ratio was high. The 3rd hypothesis was that resulting sink-source imbalances are buffered by stem carbohydrate reserves. If Ic > 1, demand was not down-sized and excess assimilates were stored (overflow model). If Ic < 1 reserves were mobilized. The model was tested on a multi-annual period in La Mé (Ivory Coast) on a control progeny, LM2T X D10D. Sensitive periods to Ic were adjusted by optimization of parameters using evolutionary algorithm method. The PSP occurs at the early stage of development of phytomer, begin 36 months before harvest (mbh) and ends 28 mbh. The sex determination is very complex and occurs during PSP. The initial sex ratio of palm population was determined by mean Ic from nearly 34 to 28 mbh and the last month a second phase increases sensitivity to low Ic. This sexualization phase ends with PSP. A first stage of abortion is founded 17 mbh (frond emergency). A second stage of abortion occurs from 10 to 8 mbh. The model shows good monthly and annual simulations of bunches number harvested by ha at La Mé station. Validations at sites in Indonesia are in progress. Other model features including simulation of oil production and impacts of drought are presented in subsequent papers. (Résumé d'auteur