Victor, Marion, Anne-Sophie, and Thomas are four students from the French University of Caen. They are currently in a Licence program in Geography – Territorial Planning. The 4 of them have been hired by the organization “SAFER Normandie” and the association “Vigisol,” both defending and protecting the environment in the region of Normandie.  The student’s mission is to analyze the pictures taken for the 4th urbanization project of the group.

What was the project? And how geoconcept software helped them?

The so-called project consists in analyzing a territory/region through pictures taken in 2 different time periods. Here comes the geoconceptsoftware. Indeed, this software helped them compare the urbanization level between these periods.

‘We see if the agricultural parcels have been urbanized, said one of the students. And then, it means that these parcels are no longer used for crops or farming. The geographers surround the area in red on the picture and consider it as a ‘consumption area’ where farmers lost their fields.’

What’s the aim of this project?  

According to Guillaume Jouan, head of the Research Division and SAFER communities, this project will help them analyze what’s the trend of the agricultural lands consumption. We’ll see if the land consumption decrease or not and if it’s due to the 2008 crisis? Are the local politicians finally aware of the problem? Said Guillaume. The results would be delivered within the next six months.

- Consume less, consume better. This sentence from the SAFER organization representative is a token of the French law adopted by the government stating to protect agricultural and natural areas.

VIGISOL: http://www.vigisol.fr

SAFER: http://haute-normandie.safer.fr/Presentation-et-activites-de-la-Safer.aspx

Find out more: http://www.agriculteur-normand.com/actualites/safer-l-urbanisation-au-dela-des-cliches:AI197ZD2.html