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Water and landscape dynamics in southern Burgundy: two and a half centuries of water management in an agricultural landscape

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Abstract

This interdisciplinary research project investigates changing patterns of water use in rural Burgundy, France over a 250-year timeframe. This rural landscape is undergoing rapid and major changes, partly driven by European Union policies that govern the environmental impacts of human activities. These policies reflect the power of governments to directly influence local landscapes, and many traditional water mills and ponds have disappeared while others have been repurposed. We seek to document these endangered features on the landscape and analyze their changing function. An integrated research design incorporating humanities, social sciences, and Earth sciences seeks to illuminate the factors involved in the changing use of local water resources, including mills and ponds. Advanced techniques including geographic information systems and geochemical analysis are combined with historical research including analysis of historical documents, cadastral records and oral history interviews of current land owners and farmers.

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Notes

  1. Personal communication from Bernard Bezes, Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière.

  2. Total adult population of study area was 415 in 2009 (INSEE Dossier Uxeau 2009. Dec. 15, 2013. http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/recensement/populations-legales/commune.asp?depcom=71552&annee=2009).

  3. Madry (1990) Application des systèmes d'information géographique informatisée et de télédétection en relevé archéologique régional Bourgogne, France et Caroline du Nord, USA. Journées d'études internationales: Télédétection et cartographie thématique en archéologie. CNRS/CRA, Valbonne. Unpublished conference proceedings.

  4. BaseCamp Garmin. Web. Dec. 15, 2013. http://www.garmin.com/en-US/shop/downloads/basecamp.

  5. Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://qgis.osgeo.org.

  6. These samples were pretreated at the University of Pittsburgh following standard acid/base/acid pretreatment protocols (Abbott and Stafford 1996) and measured at the William M. Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Facility at the University of California, Irvine. Calibrated dates and calendar ages were calculated using the CALIB 5.0 calibration (Stuiver and Reimer 1993; Reimer et al. 2004).

  7. Personal communications with authors, April 2013.

  8. Original documents, Uxeau Mairie.

  9. P654 and M2296, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Macôn.

  10. Roy (2007, p. 641).

  11. Personal communications with authors, July 2009.

  12. Original documents, Uxeau Mairie.

  13. M2299, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Macôn.

  14. M2299, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Macôn.

  15. Personal communication with authors, April 2013.

  16. Roy (2007, p. 16).

  17. Personal communication with authors, April 2013.

  18. M2300, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Macôn.

  19. M2299, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Macôn.

  20. Archives Départementales du Côte d’Or, Archives en ligne, États du Duché de Bourgone, C2284, C4745, C4803, and parish records Uxeau Mairie.

  21. M2261, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Mâcon.

  22. Original documents, Uxeau Mairie.

  23. Personal communication with authors, July 2009.

  24. M2296, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Mâcon.

  25. M2526, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Mâcon.

  26. M2260 and M2261, Archives Départementales de Saône-et-Loire à Mâcon.

  27. Roy (2007, p. 45).

  28. Personnel Communication with authors, April 2013.

  29. Roy (2007, p. 658).

  30. INSEE Dossier Uxeau, 1793–2009.

  31. INSEE Dossier Uxeau, 2009.

  32. INSEE Dossier Uxeau, 2010.

  33. Personal communications with authors, July 2009.

  34. Personal communication with authors, March 2004, July 2009, and April 2013.

  35. e.g. Camp Municipal Val d’Arroux, Toulon-sur-Arroux.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our appreciation to the many people and organizations which have assisted us and facilitated our research. These include the many local people of the area who have so kindly assisted us over the years, our 2009, 2013 and 2014 interviewees, the staff at Archives Departementales de Saone et Loire, and at the Archives Nationales in Paris, Dr. Bernard Bezes, responsable de la cartothèque at IGN Paris and his staff, Mr. Jim Burke, Prof. Carole Crumley, the Dumbarton Oaks Foundation, Dr. Vincent Guichard and his staff at the Centre Archéologique Européen at Bibracte, M. Hubert Loreau, Ms. Sarah Madry, Dr. Dennis McDaniel, Mr. Chris Potter, and Prof. Vin Steponaitis and the University of North Carolina’s Research Laboratories of Archaeology. Finally, we wish to thank our two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599-3120, NC, USA

    Scott Madry, Elizabeth Anne Jones & Amanda Tickner

  2. Interdisciplinary Studies, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7107, USA

    Seth Murray

  3. Geology Department, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA, 16335, USA

    Tamara Misner

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  1. Scott Madry
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Correspondence to Scott Madry.

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Madry, S., Jones, E.A., Tickner, A. et al. Water and landscape dynamics in southern Burgundy: two and a half centuries of water management in an agricultural landscape. Water Hist 7, 301–335 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-015-0132-z

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