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Framework and Tools for Agricultural Landscape Assessment Relating to Water Quality Protection

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Abstract

While many scientific studies show the influence of agricultural landscape patterns on water cycle and water quality, only a few of these have proposed scientifically based and operational methods to improve water management. Territ’eau is a framework developed to adapt agricultural landscapes to water quality protection, using components such as farmers’ fields, seminatural areas, and human infrastructures, which can act as sources, sinks, or buffers on water quality. This framework allows us to delimit active areas contributing to water quality, defined by the following three characteristics: (i) the dominant hydrological processes and their flow pathways, (ii) the characteristics of each considered pollutant, and (iii) the main landscape features. These areas are delineated by analyzing the flow connectivity from the stream to the croplands, by assessing the buffer functions of seminatural areas according to their flow pathways. Hence, this framework allows us to identify functional seminatural areas in terms of water quality and assess their limits and functions; it helps in proposing different approaches for changing agricultural landscape, acting on agricultural practices or systems, and/or conserving or rebuilding seminatural areas in controversial landscapes. Finally, it allows us to objectivize the functions of the landscape components, for adapting these components to new environmental constraints.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the “Charte de développement pérenne de l’agriculture Bretonne,” under a European programme (FEDER). We thank the staff of the regional farmer counsel organization (Chambre d’Agricultures de Bretagne), who contributed greatly to this framework, particularly Robert Blondel and Sylvie Tico, as well as the scientists and stakeholders involved in the discussions. M. S. N. Carpenter revised and edited the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, Agrocampus Ouest, UMR 1069, Soil Agro and HydroSystem, 65 Route de Saint-Brieuc, CS 84215, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Chantal Gascuel-Odoux

  2. INRA, UMR 1069, Soil Agro and HydroSystem, 35000, Rennes, France

    Chantal Gascuel-Odoux, Patrick Durand & Philippe Merot

  3. Agrocampus Ouest, UMR 1069, Soil Agro and HydroSystem, 35000, Rennes, France

    Chantal Gascuel-Odoux, Patrick Durand & Philippe Merot

  4. Chambres d’Agriculture de Bretagne, Maison de l’Agriculture, 35000, Rennes, France

    Florence Massa

  5. Université de Rennes 1, CNRS, UMR ECOBIO, 35000, Rennes, France

    Olivier Troccaz

  6. INRA, UR 980, SAD-Paysage, 35000, Rennes, France

    Jacques Baudry & Claudine Thenail

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  1. Chantal Gascuel-Odoux
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  2. Florence Massa
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  3. Patrick Durand
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  5. Olivier Troccaz
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  7. Claudine Thenail
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Correspondence to Chantal Gascuel-Odoux.

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Gascuel-Odoux, C., Massa, F., Durand, P. et al. Framework and Tools for Agricultural Landscape Assessment Relating to Water Quality Protection. Environmental Management 43, 921–935 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9244-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9244-x

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