La sectorisation des cours d’eau wallons

Poster (2009, October 20)

Le suivi des bandes riveraines des cours d'eau de Wallonie

in Revue Forestière Française (2009), 61(6), 595-610

Riparian forest buffers are environments that attract much ecological, economic and social interest. For the purposes of sustainable, multi-functional management, it is very important to have an initial ... [more ▼]

Riparian forest buffers are environments that attract much ecological, economic and social interest. For the purposes of sustainable, multi-functional management, it is very important to have an initial assessment and track changes in the situation. The article presents a monitoring system developed for the 24 000 kilometres of water courses that make up the Wallonia watershed. The system is based on a hierarchical sampling plan consisting of 1 064 sample units. Various items of information about each location were collected on practically linear plots (50 metres long and a few metres wides): landscape-related observations, description of the physical status of the shores and the streams, records of targeted vegetation and description of the riparian forest buffer where applicable. By way of example, the article describes some results that relate specifically to these strips (dendrology, tree and stand measurement, continuity and structure ) on various geographical scales. [less ▲]