Visite du bassin du Rhône – Visita al Rodano
Excursion EFIB du 16 au 21 septembre 2024
Last September, EFIB organized an excursion to visit the Rhone basin and check the different actions that are being carried out in the basin We visited a total of eleven works, some of them more than thirty years old, others more recent, carried out five or six years ago, and others in the process of being executed. In almost all of them, we have seen the application of Soil and Water Bioengineering techniques as a tool for restoration. Together with the works, we visited the UFPL’s hydraulic construction laboratory in Lausanne, where the interventions are modeled on a reduced scale.
EPFL and Géni´Alp
3rd correction of the Rhône, Leysse, Banks of the Rhône
Concerning the works, there has been an important evolution in their conception over the years: In the oldest works, the objective was to restore the banks and the riverside vegetation. In general, these were one-off and very local actions. The evolution towards understanding the river as a dynamic and complex ecosystem can already be seen in the work carried out a decade ago when the idea of allowing the river to recover its space and improve its fluvial dynamics emerged. In many cases, this space is achieved by eliminating infrastructures or by moving protection dikes The current projects incorporate the necessary flood prevention, the restoration of habitats and the river ecosystem as well as the approach of citizenship to the interventions, especially when we are in urban areas.
Revitalization of the Yzeron and Willow Nursery
Rhône restoration works
A total of 13 people participated in this trip, five of whom belong to EFIB, two professors from Boku University (Rosemarie Stangl and Ulrike Pitka), one researcher from INRAE (André Evette), two renowned professionals (Albert Sorolla and Paola Sangalli) as well as three PhD students from INRAE (Solange Leblois, Natacha Fructus and Juliette Roussette) and five master students from BOKU University (Barbara Riedl, Sirna Mara David-Lalic, Kathrin Dorfner, Petra Müller and Helena Viktoria Peischl).
The trip was organized by
Paola Sangalli, Nekane G. Espadas, and André Evette.
We would like to thank all those who have contributed to this trip:
- Giovanni De Cesare – Verein für Ingenieurbiologie – EFIB (EPFL)
- Stefania Soldati – Verein für Ingenieurbiologie – EFIB
- Pierre-André Frossard – HEPIA GENÈVE
- Marianne Gfeller – VD. CH RHONE 3
- Bednarz Piotr – VD. CH RHONE 3
- Christophe Guay – CISALB
- Vincent Pasquier – SAGYCR
- Matthieu Hervé – SAGYCR
- Nicolas Debiais – BIOTEC
- Ghislain Huyghe – BIOTEC
- William Brasier – CNR
- Romain Brusson – CNR
- Joly Celeste – CNR
- Nedjma Salhi – CNR
