This case study will focus on peri-urban agriculture in France as a way to analyze tensions over soil use and different understandings of soil quality. Peri-urban agriculture represents nearly 30% of agricultural land in France and faces challenges from urban expansion consuming hectares of land. The case study will investigate soil quality management strategies through interviews with 25-30 stakeholders in the region, including farmers, experts, and administrators. It will identify issues, current management approaches, and stakeholder objectives to develop a comprehensive and sustainable strategy for improving total soil quality in the region while balancing conflicting uses.

1. SAS-STRAT - French case study
Context of the case study
In France, soil is managed by several regulations (industrial risks, agriculture, water management,
planning, to name but a few). Soil has however gained increasing attention following the
international conference on soil sciences held in Montpellier in 1998, and the EU research and
policy initiatives. A dedicated national research programme called GESSOL was set up in 1998
which has led to considerable advances in recognizing soil as a proper element and in
acknowledging the complexity of soil management.
Agriculture land is a typical example of the conflicts and tensions between different uses of soil,
and different understandings of soil quality, in France. Agricultural surface represents 30 millions
hectares while the total surface of metropolitan French territory is 55 millions. There is increasing
pressure on these surfaces as artificialization of space (urbanisation, spreading of infrastructures... )
grows with 60 000 hectares per year. According to national statistics (AGRESTE) agricultural land
(cultivated and permanent grazing) still represent in 2009 over half of the metropolitan area.
Agricultural land lost an average of 93 000 hectares over the last three years. Artificial spaces (built
surface, coated or stabilized soil, bare soil, or artificial grass surfaces) grew and so now reach 9%.
At this rate, agricultural and natural areas lose 236 hectares per day, corresponding to the size of an
average French department (610 000 hectares) every seven years.
Among the potential cases, the research team considers the possibility to make the case study on
peri-urban agriculture, which is particularly illustrative of the tensions over soil[1]. This type of
agriculture is not an isolated part of French agriculture, since it represents according to French
national statistics nearly 30% of usable agricultural space. In these contexts agricultural soil faces
several challenges: space tends to become a scarce resource, with transport networks and housing
consuming more and more hectares; there are conflicts in land and urban planning while land price
goes on increasing; the impermeabilization of soil to water and contamination by urban pollutants
raise difficulties for water management; segmentation of land and urbanization create barriers to the
conservation of biodiversity, etc. In these situations of tensions, agriculture can be seen as a
problem (a limit to urbanization, the origin of nuisances for the urban population and the
environment...) or as a resource to maintain some functions (biodiversity, water management)
which are essential for soil quality.
Objectives
AgroParisTech and Sol et Civilisation will conduct a case study in France to analyse :
different soil qualities as they are identified and experienced by the soil research community and
stakeholders in a given region
challenges of improving soil quality in relation to conflicting situations of soil functions in this
region
hindrances and positive factors in initiatives to integrate different soil functions and values, for soils
concerned by farming
new impulses for sustainable soil management
In the course of this case study, AgroParisTech and Sol et Civilisation will invite stakeholders (e.g.
farmers, experts, local and central administration, NGOs, industry, etc) to analyse their situation,
and the issues of total soil quality, and will identify among them prospective French participants for
the final dissemination workshop.
The case study will be proposed in common by AgroPArisTech and Sol et Civilisation.
Methodology
The research will investigate the conditions and means of a comprehensive and sustainable
management of soil quality, encompassing a variety of soil functions in one region. The research
will develop in several stages :
Identification of one territory with particular challenges as regards soil quality;
Synthesis of the strategy for soil quality management in France (state of the art of available
research, notably from GESSOL and SNOWMAN research)

2. For the case, identification of the main stakeholders involved and concerned on the different
qualities and functions of soil (e. g. agriculture, water management, land planning,
biodiversity, climate change…)
Conduct of interviews with 25 to 30 of these stakeholders and with soil sciences researchers, on the
basis of a cooperative research methodology (here on the basis of the IDPA grid developed
by H. Ollagnon[2], a cooperative research tool involving stakeholders in the investigation of
the quality of a problem – here the integrated quality of soil -, considered as a complex and
multi-stakeholder issue)
Preparation of a case study report outlining:
the main issues and challenges related to soil quality in the territories considered, the different
understanding of soil quality by researchers and stakeholders
the diagnosis of the actions that have been undertaken so far in order to solve these problems :
what is the current management strategy for soil and what are its results in terms of
qualities?
Forecasting: reporting stakeholders’ analysis on the likely evolution of the situation in terms of
issues at stakes, threats and assets
Action : stakeholders’ objectives and propositions, in terms of strategy and actions, to address the
issue of comprehensive and sustainable soil quality
In the course of the interviews stakeholders will be invited to participate in the integration
workshop (WP…). It is expected that five to ten of them will be involved. Among the interviewees,
the research team will meet soil expert and scientists (e.g. INRA, ADEME, BRGM…) with a view
to cross qualitative perspectives from the regional case study to scientific views and state of the art.
Soil being a complex issue, the evaluation of its quality necessarily involves a large number of
stakeholders. An effective management of soil encompassing its different and existing and potential
qualities requests an involvement of the various actors concerned. A systemic approach of total soil
quality is best suited to address soil as an heritage. This approach proposed above considers the
different systems related to soil (water management, cattle breeding, crop culture, urbanization,…)
as interconnected systems with interactions, retroaction and feedback[3]. This approach was used in
a variety of contexts both as a tool to describe and analyse the situation, and as a tool to identify
possible ways to improve the situation[4].
While several cooperative research were conducted to analyse soil management conflicts, these are
most of the time analysed through the prism of other conflicts (peri-urban agriculture, water
management...). The case studies in this research will be focussed on soil in itself.
Back to SAS-STRAT homepage
[1] Brédif, Hervé : Quel projet d'intérêt national pour le plateau de Saclay? / Hervé Brédif. - In: L'
Espace géographique, 38 (2009) 3, pp. 251 – 265
Pupin V et al., Une démarche patrimoniale de gestion de la qualité du vivant en Ile de France :
l'expérience de la plaine de Versailles et du plateau des Alluets, Courrier de l'Environnement de
l'INRA n°55, février 2008
Christin D., Retisser des liens entre rural et urbain : quatre territoires d'Ile de France se mobilisent,
Sol et Civilisation, lettre n°24, 2003
[2] Ollagnon, H., 2006, La gestion de la biodiversité : quelles stratégies patrimoniales ?, Annales
des Mines n°44
[3] SIMON H., The science of the artificial, (1969), MIT Press
[4] Ollagnon, ibid.