Search

Recent years have been marked by a strong popular and political mobilization around climate change. However, to what extent does this mobilization lead to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or the vulnerability of our society to the effects of climate change? This question is at the heart of the research presented, which sought to identify the barriers and levers to the integration of climate issues into urban planning of Swiss cities. The literature review first situates the integration of climate change in Swiss cities in relation to the evolution of practices at the international level. It emerged that Swiss cities have generally been late in integrating climate issues into their public policies. Practices still focus strongly on energy policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but adaptation measures in urban planning are poorly implemented. In order to better understand the reasons for this slow and late integration of climate change into urban planning of Swiss cities, a survey was conducted among more than 200 professionals. It showed that the evolution of practices is generally driven by “pioneering” actors who are strongly mobilized by personal values and who use specialized and scientific sources of information. Finally, two focus groups with representative professionals were organized in order to deepen the barriers and levers observed and to formulate sound recommendations for integrating the climate issue into urban planning. Two lines of action emerged: prioritization (strengthening legal frameworks and organizational structures) and support (training and involvement of climate experts at all stages of urban planning).

The gradual institutionalization of public participation increasingly compels local authorities to partially share their power over the transformation of urban areas. The smooth running of a participatory session is based on selecting the appropriate type of interaction, or medium, which supports the local authorities to reach and interact with a targeted public. However, local authorities often appear unfamiliar with the organization of interactive sessions with the population. This article introduces an evaluation framework that focuses on the access conditions of participants to the sessions of interaction. This novel perspective aspires to assist the local authorities in their decision to adopt a participatory medium (or method of interaction). Seven dimensions are investigated to this aim, namely accessibility, availability, adequacy, affordability, acceptability, awareness, and attractiveness (the last dimension is introduced in this article). In light of two real case scenarios that occurred in Western Switzerland, the use of the access framework is investigated for two potential purposes: (1) supporting the choice of a medium for an interactive session according to the urban project’s context and the targeted public, and (2) improving future participatory approaches by assessing the representativeness of participants attending a past session in comparison to the originally targeted public.

This paper presents a platform aiming the ease of the debate between citizens. In the early 2010’ies, governments are seeking new ways to be more accountable and transparent towards their citizens; marking a renewal in public participation. In return, citizens are eager to be heard and to use new tools based on information and communication technologies (ICT) like the web 2.0. This public’s empowerment presents some costs for the authorities who are mainly concerned with the loss of decision making power. To face those challenges, several 2D online maps have been developed to help the governments to direct and centralize citizens insights. Those previous collaborating mapping tools helped to identify the characteristics of a reliable platform : user-friendly, simple and accessible (anywhere at any time). In our implementation, we adopted the third dimension which provides numerous benefits : 1. a more effective and effortless visualization, 2. An unbiased representation of the environment, 3. The merge of the participant cognition spaces. From our past experiences, we conceptualized the actors (citizens / facilitator / transcriber) interactions and dynamics in public engagement on-site meeting. From this approach, we evaluated how the utilization of a 3D virtual environment as the support of the participation will reshape and enhance the relation synergies between the actors : 1. Centralization of the interactions within the platform, 2. Automated analysis from the gathered raw information, 3. Reachability of a larger part of the population, 4. Lightening of the participatory processes.

Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for small municipalities and individuals. However, groundwater can be polluted by almost any land use. Consequently, many governments have acquired groundwater information in the aim of protecting the resource. Nevertheless, the resulting data are often ill-fitted to planning needs. In a previous study, a method was developed to help planners interpret hydrogeological data. It combines land planning and hydrogeological data through multicriteria analysis, in order to obtain groundwater contamination risk maps. The method proved efficient and useful. However, it could not be easily implemented by land planners, who do not always have training with these types of data and geographical information system (GIS). This paper presents how the method was integrated into a web-based interface called Aménagement du Territoire et Eau Souterraine (ATES). ATES allows planners to view groundwater basic maps, evaluate the present contamination risk for groundwater, and analyse new planning scenarios. ATES also suggests mitigation measures and offers tools to discuss the possible solutions. The tool has been developed, tested and validated with land planners. To our knowledge, it is the first geo-informatics tool developed especially for planners that aims at facilitating the incorporation of groundwater into planning. Moreover, an innovative approach called MACBETH was used for data aggregation, a novelty in groundwater management and spatial data integration.

Predicted climate change may significantly affect drinking water supply in urban areas. Local water stakeholders facing climate change will have to deal with uncertain information and unexpected events. To address this lack of data, the knowledge and experience of practitioners might be used to assess the potential impacts of climate change on different issues, including drinking water supply. This paper proposes a participatory approach to identify local issues associated with drinking water supply (from source to tap) in a climate change context. This approach relies on the experience and knowledge of local practitioners. The proposed approach was applied to the Québec City metropolitan area (Province of Quebec, Canada). It is based on assignment examples (in this case, a selected set of districts from the study territory) in order to generalize application to the entire territory. This approach helps stakeholders to rationally consider different dimensions and the complexity of drinking water supply.

Background In 2007, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated the Global plan of action for Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR). The main goal of this plan is to reduce further loss of genetic diversity in farm animals, so as to protect and promote the diversity of farm animal resources. An important step to reach this goal is to monitor and prioritize endangered breeds in the context of conservation programs. Methodology/Web portal implementation The GENMON WebGIS platform is able to monitor FAnGR and to evaluate the degree of endangerment of livestock breeds. The system takes into account pedigree and introgression information, the geographical concentration of animals, the cryo-conservation plan and the sustainability of breeding activities based on socio-economic data as well as present and future land use conditions. A multi-criteria decision tool supports the aggregation of the multi-thematic indices mentioned above using the MACBETH method, which is based on a weighted average using satisfaction thresholds. GENMON is a monitoring tool to reach subjective decisions made by a government agency. It relies on open source software and is available at http://lasigsrv2.epfl.ch/genmon-ch. Results/Significance GENMON allows users to upload pedigree-information (animal ID, parents, birthdate, sex, location and introgression) from a specific livestock breed and to define species and/or region-specific weighting parameters and thresholds. The program then completes a pedigree analysis and derives several indices that are used to calculate an integrated score of conservation prioritization for the breeds under investigation. The score can be visualized on a geographic map and allows a fast, intuitive and regional identification of breeds in danger. Appropriate conservation actions and breeding programs can thus be undertaken in order to promote the recovery of the genetic diversity in livestock breeds in need. The use of the platform is illustrated by means of an example based on three local livestock breeds from different species in Switzerland.

WOS:000365357400001; International audience; For mid-latitude cities, higher summer temperatures due to climate change are a cause for concern because they aggravate the urban heat island phenomenon and reduce thermal comfort inside buildings. By acquiring the appropriate knowledge and skills, architects and urban designers can become key actors in adaptation to climate change. Two workshops bringing together architects and urban designers provided evidence of deficiencies in this area. We hypothesize that a design support tool (DST) focused on the issue of adaptation of mid-latitude cities to rising summer temperatures could help improve knowledge and skills of professionals in the field. The first section presents the results taken from a review and classification of DSTs, which highlight the tools' features that are likely to reach this goal. Tools of the "hybrid" category seem most appropriate. To verify this, seven DSTs were selected and tested by fourteen students enrolled in a graduate-level architecture design studio. The second section presents the results from this test, including an analysis of the final projects, a web-based questionnaire and two focus groups. The relevance of hybrid approaches is established, but the results bring into question the capacity of a single DST to meet the individual and multiple needs of professionals.

Involving a wide-range of stakeholders at different moments in the planning of urban adaptation to climate change can help to overcome different barriers to adaptation, such as a lack of common perception, or control over options. This Article argues for an approach that involves a wide range of actors throughout the planning process in order to confront the challenges of urban adaptation to climate change. It builds on the results of a three-year participatory action research project to identify the catalysts with which local administrations can overcome the lack of data, the low level of engagement around the climate issue, and the cause-and-effect linkages of climate change impacts on the urban environment. Significant factors include territorial rootedness, leveraging actors’ experience, interaction between actors, as well as the valuing of local actors as experts of territorial management rather than as novices with regard to climate change adaptation. In addition to contributing towards the engageme...

Exotic vascular plants are increasingly numerous, and decision support systems identifying the most problematic species are needed to help environmental managers to develop control strategies. The fundamental tool in this respect is a list of weeds, or a weed risk assessment. We propose here a list for the province of Quebec constructed using an innovative approach based on 1) well-defined criteria, 2) consideration of all potential problems associated with exotic plants, 3) use of credible scientific data, 4) assessment by a panel composed of experts with diverse expertise and who are also potential users of the list, 5) use of a decision support approach, and 6) a debate among experts in order to reach a verdict concerning the status (weed, no weed) of each candidate plant. The list contains 87 of the 908 taxa of exotic vascular plants that are naturalized in Quebec, i.e., 9.6% of the total. About two thirds of the weeds are problematic for agricultural or ornamental plant production or for fo...

International audience; RÉSUMÉ. L'utilisation d'outils d'analyse multicritère (AMC) dans les Systèmes d'Information Géographique (SIG) est à ce jour encore assez peu répandue et limitée. Plusieurs causes ont été identifiées dans différents articles traitant du sujet. Citons notamment le manque d'intégra-tion de ces méthodes dans les SIG et l'utilisation de méthodes à critère unique de synthèse. À toutes ces causes, une supplémentaire peut être ajoutée: bon nombre de travaux SIG-AMC n'ont pas bénéficié d'une politique de maintenance ou sont restés au stade de prototype. Afin de surmonter ces limitations, une intégration d'ELECTRE TRI dans un SIG open source, Quantum GIS, est proposée. Cet article décrit la stratégie adoptée pour intégrer la méthode d'AMC dans le SIG et l'implémentation. La méthode est par ailleurs complétée d'un outil d'apprentissage des préférences. Pour terminer, une application de l'outil sur un problème d'aménagement du territoire est présentée. ABSTRACT. Decision Aid tools in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are currently not very widely used; their functionality is moreover limited. In the literature, several causes have been identified for this issue. To all the causes, the following can be added: most GIS-MCDA tools have not been implemented or never surpassed the stage of prototype. We set out to overcome some of these limitations through our ELECTRE TRI solution integrated in an "open source" GIS: Quantum GIS. This article describes the strategy adopted to integrate the decision aid tool in the GIS and implementation. Finally we demonstrate the use of our tool on land-use planning Revue internationale de géomatique – n o 1/2013, 13-38

In recent decades, governments have developed better knowledge of groundwater and established measures to protect and preserve it. In the hope of protecting this resource and ensuring its sustainability, the Government of Quebec has launched a programme to characterise groundwater in the southern portion of the province. Prior to launching this programme, pilot projects were carried out in two watersheds to produce groundwater atlases. However, the producers of the atlases are under the impression that their documents remain unused by municipal and county planners. The main objective of this study is to propose strategies to facilitate the incorporation of groundwater data into land planning processes. This paper presents the results of a series of semi-directed interviews with land planning stakeholders in the Province of Quebec. The study proposes four actions to improve the use of groundwater information in land planning: an awareness-raising campaign for all citizens, basic training on groundwater for...

The aim of this paper is to describe a method for evaluating the vulnerability of drinking water systems to contamination, in particular in rural regions used intensively for agriculture. To do so, various indicators were developed to represent the source to tap multi-barrier approach for drinking water safety. These indicators correspond to four barriers: source susceptibility to contamination; water treatment efficiency; distribution system management; and, overall management of water quality. The indicators were classified, regrouped and weighted within a model based on a multi-criteria analysis. The method was developed and applied to 39 municipal water systems of rural Quebec, Canada. The model obtained can be used for planning purposes to prioritise water systems requiring improvements.

This research focuses on the analysis of the spatial distribution of 149 urban conflicts occurring between 1989 and 2000 in Quebec City, Canada. Specifically, the article explores the relationship between the spatial dynamics of the conflicts—in terms of frequency, duration, and intensity—and the following four dimensions of urban space: social composition; built environment; propensity to associate and to voice; and accessibility to various urban resources. The results of statistical analyses by means of a Kruskal–Wallis test and a Mann–Whitney test show, regardless of the dimension considered, to what extent certain areas are characterized by frequency, duration, or intensity of the conflict activity. Specifically, the results suggest that the degree of involvement of local people in a conflict varies very much depending on the nature of the social composition. Other findings show a relationship between areas with a high propensity to associate and to voice and a conflict activity that is more intense, more frequent, but not necessarily longer. These forms of social practices are thus testimony to the existence of know-how, i.e., a culture of conflict activity oriented towards efficiency.

Stakeholders involved in the definition of managerial problems perceive and internalize the complexity of these problems as mental models. These models are not always made explicit, which can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. This article presents Ulysse, a tool that enables stakeholders to progressively elicit their mental models as causal loop models. Ulysse uses web technologies that store information in a database and interactively display the modeling results. It is based on matrix calculation that facilitates statistical operations and provides better understanding of the model structure. Analysis and comparison of individual models reveal the most important variables and relationships among them as a basis for identifying key issues, divergent and convergent opinions between stakeholders. Ulysse has been tested in the context of regional economic development in Atlantic Canada. The tool was designed to support managers, during interviews, in building qualitative models of indicators. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Les premieres banlieues pavillonnaires nord-americaines sont problematiques pour le vieillissement a domicile. Malgre la dependance a l'automobile, les banlieusards âges aspirent a y vieillir. Plutot que de demenager, ils adaptent leur quotidien et leurs deplacements. L'acces a la mobilite est un enjeu majeur au maintien d'une experience residentielle positive, notamment pour les individus en perte d'autonomie. Or, parce qu’elle est etudiee avec le concept de deplacement, la mobilite des aines demeure mal comprise en tant qu’experience individuelle et collective. C’est dans cette optique que les pratiques et les significations de la mobilite quotidienne de 87 banlieusards âges de 55 a 82 ans de l'agglomeration de Quebec au Canada sont ici etudiees. En croisant des methodes quantitative et qualitative ainsi que des techniques d'analyses spatiales, l'article developpe une typologie de mobilite pour explorer les strategies d'adaptation des aines a leur environnement socio-spatial. Les resultats montrent que, sans veritablement entrer dans un processus de decision, les banlieusards choisissent implicitement de vieillir en banlieue en adaptant de maniere continue leurs modes de vie. La conservation de l'independance et l'attachement au «mode de vie banlieusard» sont a la source des aspirations residentielles. Cette mobilite quotidienne en transformation risque aussi d'influencer les trajectoires residentielles, alimentant les reflexions sur la requalification de ces milieux vieillissants. Daily mobility of aging and elderly suburbanites: trips, aspirations and meanings of mobility The post-War suburbs of North America are problematic for aging in place. Despite their high level of car dependency, elderly suburbanites would rather grow old at home. Rather than move, they make changes to their daily routines. Gaining access to mobility is a major issue for older people, particularly frail seniors, who wish to ensure that their residential experience remains positive. Given that the study of mobility draws on the concept of trip patterns, our understanding of the individual and collective experiences of elderly mobility is incomplete. In this light, this paper explores the practices and meanings of daily mobility for 87 elderly suburbanites aged from 55 to 82 years and currently residing in the greater Quebec City area, Canada. Combining both quantitative and qualitative methods as well as spatial analysis techniques in a single study, a typology of mobility is proposed in order to explore coping strategies developed by seniors in relation to their socio-spatial environment. The results show that, without truly engaging in a decision-making process, elderly suburbanites implicitly choose to age in place by adapting their lifestyle on an ongoing basis. Their housing aspirations are the result of a desire to maintain independence and an attachment to the ‘suburban way of life’. The changing mobility is thus likely to influence residential trajectories, giving food for thought to retrofitting suburbia.

Outbreaks of microbiological waterborne disease have increased governmental concern regarding the importance of drinking water safety. Considering the multi-barrier approach to safe drinking water may improve management decisions to reduce contamination risks. However, the application of this approach must consider numerous and diverse kinds of information simultaneously. This makes it difficult for authorities to apply the approach to decision making. For this reason, multi-criteria decision analysis can be helpful in applying the multi-barrier approach to vulnerability assessment. The goal of this study is to propose an approach based on a multi-criteria analysis method in order to rank drinking water systems (DWUs) based on their vulnerability to microbiological contamination. This approach is illustrated with an application carried out on 28 DWUs supplied by groundwater in the Province of Québec, Canada. The multi-criteria analysis method chosen is measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique methodology allowing the assessment of a microbiological vulnerability indicator (MVI) for each DWU. Results are presented on a scale ranking DWUs from less vulnerable to most vulnerable to contamination. MVI results are tested using a sensitivity analysis on barrier weights and they are also compared with historical data on contamination at the utilities. The investigation demonstrates that MVI provides a good representation of the vulnerability of DWUs to microbiological contamination.

Understanding complaints regarding tap water is a useful tool for improving management of water quality. This paper presents an analysis of the spatio-temporal occurrence of citizen complaints concerning drinking water in three distribution systems of Quebec City (Canada). The study is based on an analysis of complaint data by census unit within the territory under study (spatial dimension) and by week over a period of three years (temporal dimension). Spatial and temporal complaint variability was associated through Poisson regression analysis to parameters of water quality (at the source and within the distribution system), meteorological factors and socio-economic characteristics of the population. The results show that variability of complaints is associated with distributed water quality. Modelling results highlighted the fact that the socio-economic portrait of the population has a great influence on the spatial distribution of complaints. Also, the study demonstrates that the temporal variability of complaint occurrence is affected by the variability of raw and distributed water quality. Recommendations are provided to enhance the analysis of drinking water complaints for future studies.

How to reorganize the Swiss postal network? A case study of spatial decision making-support. This article presents a case study of spatial decision making-support in relation to the Swiss Post and its efforts to reorganize the postal network in eight Swiss cities. The first part of the article describes the methodology and highlights selected original elements used in the processing of geographic information (spatial analysis and multi-criteria analysis). The second part, more analytical, examines the process used to apply the method defined in the previous section. Based on a constructivist approach of decision-support, it explores the modes of interaction between available information and decision makers. The analysis shows that the decision maker is relatively difficult to identify since the decision making process includes a set of partial and dependent decisions that are taken by a diversity of people. In conclusion, geographic information played an important role, not only on the decision, but mainly in allowing decision makers to better understand spatial complexity Cette contribution presente une application de l'aide a la decision territoriale afin d'aider la Poste suisse a reorganiser son reseau postal dans huit villes de Suisse. Le texte comprend deux parties. La premiere decrit l'approche methodologique en mettant en lumiere certaines originalites dans les traitements realises pour valoriser l'information geographique (analyse spatiale et analyse multicritere). La seconde partie est plus reflexive et porte sur le processus qui a mis en œuvre la methode precedemment decrite. Elle explore, en s'inspirant notamment d'une approche constructiviste de l'aide a la decision, les modes d'interaction entre l'information mise a disposition et les acteurs du processus. Cette reflexion montre notamment que le decideur est en fait relativement difficile a identifier, puisque le processus decisionnel comprend un ensemble de decisions partielles et imbriquees qui sont prises par des acteurs differents. On observe en conclusion que l'information geographique a joue un role tres important, non seulement sur la decision, mais aussi ou surtout, en permettant aux acteurs de mieux comprendre la complexite territoriale.

PurposeThis paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, the mobility behaviour of households and their perception of accessibility to urban amenities and, on the other hand, house price dynamics as captured through hedonic modelling.Design/methodology/approachIn order to analyse the mobility behaviour of individuals and households, their sensitivity to travel time from home to service places is estimated so as to assess their perceived accessibility, using “subjective” indices based on actual trips, as reported in the 2001 origin‐destination survey designed for Quebec City. For comparative purposes, both objective and subjective accessibility indices based, in the former case on observed travel times and, in the latter case on fuzzy logic criteria, are computed and used as a complement to a centrality index in a hedonic model of house prices.FindingsFindings indicate that there are statistically significant differences in the way accessibility is structured depending on trip purposes and household profiles. They also suggest that, while an objective measure of accessibility yields good results, resorting to subjective, and more comprehensive, accessibility indices derived from fuzzy logic provides greater insight into the understanding of commuting patterns and travel behaviour of people.Practical implicationsBetter understanding the complexity of individuals’ and households’ mobility behaviour should result in more adequate initiatives and decisions being taken by transportation and city planning authorities.Originality/valueAccessibility to jobs and services has long been known as a major determinant of urban, residential and non residential, rents. Yet, it is more often than not assumed to derive from a rather straightforward process, which this paper shows is not the case.

Land-use planners often make complex decisions within a short period of time when they must take into account sustainable development and economic competitiveness. A set of land-use suitability maps would be very useful in this respect. Ideally, these maps should incorporate complex criteria integrating several stakeholders' points of view. To illustrate the feasibility of this approach, a land suitability map for housing was realised for a small region of Switzerland. Geographical Information System technology was used to assess the criteria requested to define the suitability of land for housing. An example dealing with the evaluation of noise levels illustrates the initial steps of this procedure. Because the required criteria are heterogeneous and measured on various scales, an outranking multicriteria analysis method called ELECTRE-TRI was used. However, using it to assess the suitability of any point in a territory was impractical due to computational limitations. Therefore, a mathematical function ...

In land management, conflicts are more frequent and stronger. Any important project on land becomes difficult to implement. MAGISTER (Multicriteria Analysis with GIS for TERritory) model proposes a decision support method to integrate multiple actors of land management. It is based on geographical information systems and multicriteria analysis. In land use problems, the study area is described by a set of homogeneous zones to reduce the numbers of alternatives. The homogeneity quality is assessed by use of a valued closeness relation developed in the domain of rough set theory. This function is based on the same principle as the valued outranking relation used in ELECTRE, which is then used to select the best zones, or classify them in predefined category. One application of the MAGISTER model concerns the realisation of a land suitability map for housing. Through eight criteria, this map integrates simultaneously the particularity of each place and the general principles of land management, which should be determined by decision-makers.

Generally, groundwater is naturally of good quality for human consumption and represents an essential source of drinking water. In Canada, small municipalities and individuals are particularly reliant on groundwater, since they cannot afford complex water treatment installations. However, groundwater is a vulnerable resource that, depending on its characteristics, can be contaminated by almost any land use. In recent decades, governments have launched programs to acquire more information on groundwater, in order to better protect it. Nevertheless, the data produced are rarely adequate to be understood and used by land planners. The aim of this study was to develop a method that helps planners interpret hydrogeological data in the Province of Quebec, Canada. Based on the requests and needs of planners during semi-directed interviews, a methodology was developed to qualitatively evaluate groundwater contamination risk by land uses. The method combines land planning data and hydrogeological data through the MACBETH multicriteria analysis method, to obtain maps of groundwater contamination risk. The method was developed through group and individual meetings with numerous hydrogeology, land planning, water's economics and drinking water specialists. The resulting maps allow planners to understand the dynamics of groundwater within their territory, identify problem areas where groundwater is threatened and analyse the potential impact of planning scenarios on the risk of groundwater contamination.

Purpose – Adapting local areas to climate change is a wicked challenge for local administrations. A participatory research is applied to explore how local experience shared by local experts can inform decision and adaptation planning by taking into account local area characteristics and their interrelationships. Methodology/approach – We turned to local actors, who live or work in the city and who can be seen as urban experts. Their experiential knowledge has given us a better understanding of the characteristics of their communities. These experts are likely to possess a representation that reflects the local territorial sensitivities, which can help us determine how these characteristics might be impacted by climate change. Findings – A participatory approach bears many benefits such as mobilizing local stakeholders to find collective solutions. It also allows us to focus on common practices in the urban context, which are likely to be altered by changes in mean temperatures, precipitations, etc. It offers the additional benefit of putting into perspective the relations between a variety of urban issues. Research limitations – A participatory approach means relying on subjective assessments of the possible effects of climate change, which could challenge the relevance of perceived risks and the scope and types of actions taken. Originality/value of paper – The number of the available adaptation planning processes involving community stakeholders and assessments of these processes is very limited. A participatory process such as the cross-sectoral initiative organized in Quebec City can have significant repercussions on local engagement in climate change adaptation. This provides evidence of the potential of deliberation or interaction of territorial actors to improve their understanding of the issues and their adaptive capacity. On a methodological level, the participatory process in itself and the steps to organize it offered a planning frame that can be reproduced.

Groundwater is widely used as a source of drinking water in North America. However, it can be contaminated by microbial or chemical agents potentially hazardous to human health. In recent decades, governments have developed better knowledge of groundwater and established measures to protect and preserve the resource. Several studies have shown that relevant information on groundwater might prove very useful for regional planning purposes. However, there is little information on how groundwater information contributes to decision making in urban and regional planning in Canada and the United States. The objective of this study is to explore the level of use of groundwater information for land use planning purposes in Canada and the United States and to identify the factors that may explain why some provinces or states are more proactive than others when it comes to using such data for groundwater protection purposes. This paper presents the results of a survey sent across North America to groundwater information producers. The resulting data from the survey were examined using descriptive analyses and multiple correspondence analysis, and illustrate how groundwater data can be integrated into land planning.

This chapter reports on the transdisciplinary process initiated, structured and orchestrated by the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Suburbs (GIRBa) between September 2002 and November 2003 with the goal of redefining the future of postwar neighbourhoods in the City of Quebec.

An application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for flood mapping in flat areas is described. On this basis impacts on agricultural practice can be assessed. Flood mapping is achieved with a two dimensional hydraulic model supported by a suitable Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The GIS framework includes: dBaseIV as the database management system, MapInfo as the vector oriented support and IDRISI for the raster component. The methodology is illustrated by a case study for a part of the Basse Broye river flood plain in Switzerland.

La suburbanisation de Québec s’est déroulée à un rythme rapide au cours des cinquante dernières années, ce qui n’a pas manqué d’entraîner des débats de plus en plus amples sur les avantages et les inconvénients des genres de vie urbains et suburbains. Les quartiers centraux, après avoir perdu près de la moitié de leur population entre 1950 et 1990, ont connu une reprise démographique, particulièrement vive entre 1996 et 2001. Cette reprise, vue ici comme une forme de revalorisation des genres de vie urbains, semble associée assez étroitement avec la vigueur des débats publics portant sur des enjeux de développement à l’échelle des quartiers. Ce processus politique jouerait même un plus grand rôle dans cette revalorisation que les mécanismes économiques généralement associés à l’hypothèse du «rent gap». Toutefois, les effets de démocratisation locale associés à ce processus pourraient être remis en question par le régime élitiste de gouvernance par projets en train de s’implanter dans la ville.

The opportunities provided by adopting digitally-generated visual tools in urban participatory planning are compelling. These visual tools can promote interactions between authorities and citizens and among citizens. However, the urban participatory practices of these tools are often described from an academic perspective, which leads to a lack of knowledge from the practitioner's outlook. This study investigates practices of 3D visual tools in applied urban projects. The applied projects were recovered from media coverage. The objective is to describe participatory projects and their adopted 3D tools with a contextual and technical lens. The findings demonstrate that 3D visuals are mostly adopted for communication with a realistic representation and limited interaction in the later stage of the project where negotiation margins are insufficient at a small and medium urban scale. A better understanding of applied practices can help to introduce guidelines that support practitioners in designing approaches that benefit from the full potential of 3D visual tools.

Cette étude exploratoire des conflits urbains de la région de Québec entre 1990 et 2000 montre que la fréquence des conflits est plus élevée dans les secteurs où, d’une part, la densité de commerces de quartier est la plus forte et le tissu urbain plus ancien et, d’autre part, où la population est la plus scolarisée et dispose d’un horaire de travail flexible. Cette étude confirme ainsi que certains cadres urbains sont plus susceptibles que d’autres de générer des conflits et que certains groupes sont plus disposés à s’y engager. Elle montre aussi que ces relations sont sensiblement les mêmes, quel que soit le type d’enjeux défendus par les protagonistes de ces conflits. Deux exceptions sont toutefois à relever. Tout d’abord, les conflits liés à des enjeux environnementaux montrent parfois des relations différentes avec les variables caractérisant les lieux de conflits (indépendamment du niveau d’éducation et le type de profession). Ensuite, alors que la densité de population n’a dans l’ensemble pas d’influence sur l’émergence des conflits, on observe tout de même que dans les secteurs où la population est la plus dense, les conflits liés à des enjeux de transports ou des enjeux sociaux sont plus nombreux, This paper investigates urban conflicts that took place in the Quebec City metropolitan area between 1990 and 2000. Analyses show that some population groups are more disposed than others to get involved in conflict activity. They also stress that there are specific built environments which are more prone than others to generating such activity. Statistical analysis of seven variables related to social and urban contexts shows that the frequency of conflicts is greater, on the one hand, in areas where small shop density is the highest and buildings are the oldest, and on the other, where the population has high levels of education and a flexible work schedule. Analyses considering what is at stake present similar results, except on two points. First, conflicts with environmental stakes do not appear to be linked to a particular level of education or a flexible work schedule. Thus even if population density shows statistical independence from all variables when the conflicts are considered as a whole, it appears specifically dependent with respect to conflicts involving transportation or social stakes.