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Article Dans Une Revue Regional Environmental Change Année : 2016

Irrigation canals as tools for climate change adaptation and fish biodiversity management in Southern France

Résumé

This paper is based on the interdisciplinary research conducted in the south of France that analyses the different economic, social and environmental roles played by agricultural irrigation canals. We argue that beyond their productive role, which is to supply farmers with water, they fulfil other environmental services and play an important role in the context of future climate change to face challenges of adaptation. We point up several ecosystem services provided by such canals, e.g. replenishing the groundwater table, the development of riparian vegetation and wet areas in the Mediterranean zone, tools for regulating flooding and drought, the bases for new cultural approaches to nature. Moreover, they play an important role in the maintenance of an ichthyological biodiversity that is indispensable for the persistence of natural ecosystem. Functioning as an ecological corridor, they display interesting capacities as refuges for certain fish species under stress. Indeed, they can potentially connect upstream and downstream zones over a continuum of more than 300 km and thus covering very contrasted climatic zones (alpine versus Mediterranean). For now, most of these services remain largely unknown and underestimated. However, they serve as assets for territorial development since they combine economic, ecological and social factors whose remodelling is becoming increasingly necessary in the face of climate change.
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Dates et versions

hal-01444648 , version 1 (18-05-2018)

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Chantal Aspe, André Gilles, Marie Jacqué. Irrigation canals as tools for climate change adaptation and fish biodiversity management in Southern France. Regional Environmental Change, 2016, 16 (7, SI), pp.1975-1984. ⟨10.1007/s10113-014-0695-8⟩. ⟨hal-01444648⟩
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