Modelling with stakeholders to integrate biodiversity into land-use planning - Lessons learned in Réunion Island (Western Indian Ocean)

International audienceThis paper considers participatory modelling to integrate biodiversity Conservation into land use planning and to facilitate the incorporation of ecological knowledge into public decision making for spatial planning. Réunion Island has experienced rapid urban and agricultural expansion, which threaten its unique biodiversity. In this context, we designed three participatory modelling sequences, involving overall multidisciplinary researchers and stakeholders. The sequences aimed 1) to map land-use and biodiversity, 2) to develop a conservation plan following systematic conservation planning principles using a spatial optimization tool MARXAN) and 3) to simulate coupled land-use/conservation scenarios using a multi-agent system (MAS). The conservation plan confirms that priority areas for biodiversity protection are located on the coast where rapid land-use changes occur. Nevertheless, stakeholders from the urban and agricultural sector didn‟t participate to this sequence. Indeed, conservation planning tools are useful to locate conservation priorities but they have to be designed with stakeholders to be accepted as negotiation tool. Besides, the researchers engaged in this second equence were perceived as conservation stakeholders rather than holders of scientific knowledge. In the third sequence, the researchers involved adopted the stance of facilitating the elicitation of each stake and gathered trust from stakeholders. Overall, we conclude that the participatory development of land-use simulation models should be promoted to explore alternative scenarios for biodiversity conservation with stakeholders. In a situation of land-use conflict, a gradual and sequential participatory modelling approach should be implemented to fit into public decision-making processes

Chapitre 9 - Modèles et simulations spatio-temporels comme « objets intermédiaires » : le cas de l’étalement urbain à la Réunion

Cette recherche est en partie financée par l’Agence nationale de la recherche à travers le projet Descartes (ANR 11-AGRO-002-01). Introduction Les processus de périurbanisation se traduisent par une forte tension sur le foncier agricole et par l’émergence d’une demande en agriculture « de services ». De nouvelles fonctions sont attribuées à l’agriculture, comme la gestion des aménités rurales et environnementales (Be..

: Géoprospective territoriale à l'île de La Réunion

16 p.National audienceThe objective of this paper is to present an approach for experimenting territorial prospective analysis based on spatial modelling. This approach is carried out in the framework of the DESCARTES project which aims at developing a spatial simulation tool to support the design and analysis of different scenarios for land-use allocation in Reunion Island in terms of environmental services. The spatial modelling tool is composed of two complementary applications: (i) the Ocelet modelling language and its land dynamics simulation environment, and (ii) the Margouill@ platform. The first demonstrator, a model of farm land consumption by urbanization, was developed and presented during workshops in order to test the role of the spatial simulation tool in support of a collaborative innovation process among stakeholders, and to foster new research on social learning, spatial simulation of environmental services, and scale change issues.L'objectif de cet article est de présenter une démarche de construction d'un exercice de prospective territoriale basé sur un outil de modélisation spatiale. Cette démarche est mise en œuvre dans le cadre du projet ANR DESCARTES dont l'objectif est de construire un outil de simulation cartographique pour analyser différents scénarios d'affectation de l'usage des sols à l'Ile de La Réunion, en termes de services environnementaux. La plateforme de simulation cartographique est composée de deux applications complémentaires (i) le langage de modélisation Ocelet et son environnement de simulation de paysages dynamiques, et (ii) la plateforme Margouill@. Le développement puis la présentation, en atelier, d'un premier démonstrateur sur la consommation des terres agricoles par l'urbanisation a permis de tester l'outil cartographique comme support d'un processus d'innovation collective entre les parties prenantes, et d'ouvrir de nouveaux champs de recherche sur l'analyse de la démarche par les apprentissages, la spatialisation et la simulation prospective des services écosystémiques, et la prise en compte du changement d'échelle