According to the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, soil artificialisation corresponds to "any surface area removed from its natural, agricultural or forestry state, whether built-up or not, and whether paved or not". The term therefore refers to a change in land use, i.e. in its economic and social functions, from a natural or agricultural surface to an urbanized surface.
This imprecise definition amounts to considering an urban green space and a built-up area in the same way. This is why ecology professionals supplement it by including both soil quality (structure, composition, biological activity, etc.) and habitat quality (specific richness, plant stratification, ecological functionality, etc.), considering as artificial "environments degraded, damaged or destroyed by human activity". There is therefore not justone kind of artificialization, but several, with different degrees of imperviousness and impacts.
Soil artificialisation is a major issue of public debate and political concern, especially in France. In fact, in October 2015, soil artificialisation was included in the 10 new wealth indicators established by the Government to monitor its public policies. The following year, in August 2016, the Law for the Reconquest of Biodiversity, Nature and Landscapes was passed, to avoid, reduce and compensate (ERC sequence) for the negative impacts of human activities on the environment. In 2018, the Government's Biodiversity Plan unveiled the goal of " Zero Net Artificialization " (ZAN) by 2030, in order to curb the artificialization of land and the erosion of biodiversity. A 70% reduction in gross artificialization and the renaturation of more than 5,000 hectares would then be required to meet the ZAN.
France Stratégie, at the joint request of the French Ministries of Ecology, Territory and Urban Affairs, was asked to draw up a report to clarify the issues at stake in this objective and propose levers for soil protection. Interministerial and partnership working groups, numerous representatives from the land-use planning sector, NGOs (such as the LPO), and the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat (Citizens' Climate Convention) have also proposed solutions for moving towards land sobriety.
From the outset, ZAN has been the subject of much debate and criticism, notably for its imprecise definition of land artificialisation, the absence of quantified targets and the use of the term "net", which suggests that the aim is to compensate for rather than eliminate impacts.
To avoid focusing ZAN solely on a restrictive approach, solutions must be multi-disciplinary, multi-actor and realistic. Levers that can be mobilized include :
In France, it is estimated that between 16,000 and 61,000 hectares of land are artificialized every year. This discrepancy is due to different analysis methodologies, both in terms of spatial resolution and the nomenclature of land counted as artificial.
In addition to having a higher average level of artificialisation than its European neighbors, France is also experiencing faster growth in artificialised land than its population. According to Teruti-Luca data (annual field survey), artificialized land is estimated to have risen from 3 million hectares in 1980 to 5.1 million today, representing growth of 70%, compared with 19% for population growth over the same period (France Stratégie, 2019).
The growth in land artificialisation is very unevenly distributed across the country, with metropolitan and coastal areas being the main focus. High demand for individual housing and the development of road networks are the two main drivers of land artificialisation.
The IPBES (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), biodiversity's equivalent of the IPCC, estimates that 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction through net habitat loss. France, a true European crossroads on land and sea, is home to around 10% of the world's biodiversity. The Commissariat Général au Développement Durable (CGDD), the Office Français pour la Biodiversité (OFB) and the Observatoire National de la Biodiversité (ONB) estimate that 26% of these species are threatened with extinction or have become extinct as a result of artificialisation.
The destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats and ecological continuities through urban sprawl and urban sprawl are the main causes of this loss of biodiversity. This disrupts species' life cycles, affecting their feeding, migration and reproduction.
Artificial soil is soil where the possibilities for local biodiversity are restricted, and where the quality and quantity of ecosystem services provided by non-artificial soil are no longer guaranteed (carbon storage, air quality regulation, water infiltration, pollination, etc.).
The 6th mass extinction of biodiversity and climate change are realities that are difficult to deny. The result of unchecked human activity on Earth, this environmental crisis is forcing us to rethink all our systems, revolutionizing our ways of thinking and developing.
Artificial soils are the result of human activity and the place where people live. Real estate, a high-stakes sector, is therefore one of the levers to change everything. Sinteo is working for post-carbon real estate: doing better with less... By focusing more on renovation and new-build projects in areas that are already artificial.
Aside from the current health context, ZAN remains at the forefront of the debate, prompting us to take a closer look at open spaces as a response to many of the current and future challenges we face. The aim is to work together towards urban requalification, ecological restoration and energy renovation.
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