MAPPEMONDE 3/95

Without summaries


Joël PAILHÉ. Aquitaine, a local model. (8 fig.)

The Aquitaine region is identified by spatial tension more than by unity, or the diversity of the "pays" which make it up. Spatial modelling highlights the region's organisation, from areas to networks. The weight of Bordeaux is associated with diversified urban structures within Aquitaine whereas the region is acquiring international status.


Madeleine BROCARD, Bruno LECOQUIERRE et Pascal MALLET. A chorotype of European estuaries. (1 fig.)

The major European estuaries are complex areas. Their complexity results from the break between sea and land space, making them a focus of challenges and conflicts between the various agents which make up their territorial structure. Moreover the recurrent forms of spatial organisation and dynamic forces which are common to all estuaries result in the traditional upriver-downriver vision being replaced by a left bank-right bank perspective.


Alain PRAT. Plan Cabanne, the Maghribian immigrants' district in Montpellier. (5 fig.)

Plan Cabanne, one of Montpellier's older suburbs, functions as a cultural centre for immigrants from the Maghrib. The immigrants' sense of territory is expressed through spatial usage, as represented in the maps. The study of the area and its dynamics is based on an evaluation of spatial practices and of the population's mental representations. The new significance attached to the area gives a different meaning to its status within the city.


Eric VERDEIL. The "Access roads" into Martigues. (5 fig.)

"Access road" policies aim at reclaiming urban peripheral landscapes, which have been seriously damaged by the implantation of various activities and poor urban management. The case of Martigues is an illustration of the diversity of situations, showing the problems posed by this type of planning. Access areas serve to create an image of the city as much as they are the urban developers' remedy to the crisis of the suburbs.


Jean-Luc CHATELAIN, Bertrand GUILLIER, Marc SOURIS, Eric DUPÉRIER et Hugo YEPES. The paper briefly outlines the successive stages of the scenario of an earthquake in the city of Quito. The required cross-referencing of data of various origins (Earth Sciences, Civil Engineering and Sociodemography) has been carried out using the SAVANE GIS. As a result, graphical documents describing the city's seismic sensitivity have been produced which have been useful in raising awareness among policy makers and economic authorities.


Alastair MORRISON. Differences between public transport maps in France, Germany and Spain. (7 fig.)

French public transport maps have a uniform style, in that they attempt to show each bus line by a different colour.Maps of different French towns attempt different solutions to the obvious problems which result, according to the number of bus services, and the spatial pattern of bus lines.In contrast, German and Spanish maps of public transport networks differ in style within each country, and from the French maps.The reasons must be sought in differences between the three countries in: (a) the modes of public transport used, (b) the amount of subsidy to publics transport, and (c) the degree of political centralisation.


Yves CLOUET. The organisation and development of Aïté, a village in the Sahel. (4 fig.)

Aïté, a large Sahel village, is a good illustration of the role of the inhabitants' mental representations of territory as original and efficient tools for analysis, research and intervention reflecting choremes. Few of the agents of development however (technical and administrative agents and projects) seem to be making an effort to understand what is being said here. Everything remains to be invented in this area.


Denis GAUTIER. Delimiting landscapes: the case of "Vallée Française" in the Cévennes. (4 fig.)

The "management" of landscapes requires identification and definition: in the case of "Vallée Française" in the Cévennes, this is carried out by identifying coincident natural boundaries, resulting from relief factors, and social boundaries which result from the division of society into rural areas. Prospective landscapes are subsequently proposed.


Claudine BOULANGER et Serge BATTU. Modelling a mountain village as a pedagogical exercise. (5 fig.)

Children are confronted to the problem of how to represent their village in the simplest possible way so as to help anybody understand its spatial organisation, notably the teacher, who is a newcomer to the area. The starting point of the exercise consists in the pupils of the three age-group class of Saint-Dalmas-de-Tende (Alpes-Maritimes) observing this environment which corresponds to their own living space.


Jean-Paul CHEYLAN et Thérèse PANOUILLÈRES. Stop press.

Sylvie DUBUC.Atlas du Viêt-nam (1 fig.) (review).

Joël CHARRE. Satellite et surveillance du climat. Atlas de veille climatique: 1986-1994 (1 fig.) (review).


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Last modified: October 30, 1995