Ecological engineering against marl erosion in the Southern Alps

Abstract

This article first exposes a synthesis about knowledge learnt on the influence of vegetation on erosion in marly lands in the French Southern Alps. The different roles of vegetation, close to the plant dynamics, are presented by relating the stages of the restoration of a degraded marly catchment basin. Here are approached the stage of rehabilitation of the basin with the use of bioengineering works, the stage of plant dynamics and monitoring of the rehabilitated ecosystem, finally the stage of sustainable management with the vegetation perenniality. In the second part, we explain how this knowledge can be used to propose optimal strategies for erosion control by ecological engineering, with intervention recommendations at the different stages of a basin restoration.