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ABSTRACT With the aim of reflecting on the future of the city idea within the process that leads to generalised urbanisation which has become common to our societies, the authors ask themselves how, in human geography, can a long forgotten affective and emotional frame of reference contribute to the analysis of the dynamics of urban resources. Its use seems to have become fashionable, to certainly open new horizons that enable the exploration of all that makes up our daily urban life, in our cities and our "à la carte" territories, be it a question of our relation to spatial shapes or to the social problems that occur there, or of course be it also the way we identify to "place-communities" which are not necessarily our usual neighbourhoods. Or be řt a question of making the populations that are involved accept "urban projects", that authors would rather be able to call "city projects". However, this mobilisation of affects and emotions, and furthermore, the reference frame of the "love of places" is not without problems. It is useful to distinguish their nature. These however, can only be controlled as long as one is prepared to put into practice, in a rather harsh way, even in a conceptual manner, what some might call very "soft" sciences.

ABSTRACT This paper concerns the air transport facilities provided by the four main airports of south-eastern France (Lyon Saint-Exupéry, Marseille Provence, Nice Cote-d'Azur and Montpellier Méditerranée). It explores the complementary nature of theses infrastructures and the possibilities for coordination between these airports to improve accessibility. Complementarity between services is of little interest to the main actors - airport authorities operate in relation to a competitive environment, carriers are only interested in complementarity if they retain control of their own clientele and the government is ready to encourage all forms of investment, including investments in small airports even as the risk of weakening regional airmports. European policy favours competition, ft is not suprising therefore, that networks are organised in terns of individual, competitive strategies. However, this is not necessarily to the disadvantage of users.

ABSTRACT Some recent books have renewed the history of geography, in particular in France. They precise the role of some of pioneers of geography like Varenius (Lukermann, in Buttimer et al., 1999) and stress the insthtutionalization of the discipline (Dunbar, 2001). Progress in mapping was responsible, at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, for a break which induced a new way to conceive geography (Godlewska, 1999). The geography which was structured at that time took advantage of the progress of thematic cartographic, either geological (Winchester, 2001) or thematic (Palsky, 1997). The geographers of the French school put a special emphasis on glance and the observation of landscape (Robic etal., 1993; Robic, 2000), fieldwork and laboratoty techniques (Baudelle etal, 2001). The evolution of Japanese geography was in many respects similar to the Western one (Takeuchi, 2000).

ABSTRACT French colonial town planning in North America seems today remote and vestigial, but it lingers in several important cities. The study of Detroit, New Orleans, Vincennes, and St. Louis throw a light on the early development decisions that their French builders made, greatly influenced by the poor colonial conditions and the local geographical situation ; neither 'grand plans', nor ronds points and diagonal boulevards are to be found, but a more or less ambitious grid enhancing the grand place. Although large-scale accidents and bulldozer planning have swept away most of the French legacy in the dynamic business cores of Detroit and St. Louis, these plans have provided the pattern of their later surburban growth and survive in central New Orleans and Vincennes.

ABSTRACT The notion of identity forms part of a continuum ranging from the individual to a territory. The methods of social geography enable this notion to be delimited with greater precision. In terms of perception several types of geographical form act as excellent 'identity mediators' - places and territories, landscapes, spatial networks, urban and rural contrats. By putting identity at the centre of the triangle subject-society-space and in taking account of the increasing dynamism of these elements, social geography methods ensure that the 'curturalism' trap is avoided.

ABSTRACT The archaeological site of Mahasthan is located on the bank of the Karatoya River in northwestern Bangladesh. This river was a tributary of the Tista river and had a big discharge. Today, řťs a small river. IMeotectonics in the Himalayan Piedmont resulted in changes to river courses. Satellite images are being used to study relations between tectonic process and the drainage network of the Tista and Karatoya river systems at the scale of the Tista river system and at the scale of the Karatoya river system near Mahasthan.

ABSTRACT Until now, prospective studies, designed to facilitate decision-making by looking a different future scenarios, have not been the subject of retrospective analysis aimed at understanding the errors of method or evaluation which might characterise them. By using certain criteria, a retrospective view enables the identification of various parameters judged important and others which have been discarded. This article looks at a prospective study which was particularly important in its time (An image of France in 2000 - a scenario of the inacceptable) undertaken by the DATAR in 1971. Sufficient time has elapsed since this study was completed to know the outcome. These conclusions may be drawn from this retrospective analysis. First, the methods used stronly condition the results : the 1960s were characterized by the conviction that it was possible to improve understanding of the future by detailed statistical analysis enabling both the possibilities for change to be identified. Second, these works are characterised by the dominant ideas of the period : two main currents of thought existed - one based on a marxist analysis to explain changes to the capitalist system, and the other attributing the Stat with the responsabilHy for orientating economic activity. Finally, although these studies were able to anticipate certain changes, they were incapable of predicting the major changes in the way of life which occured between 1970 and 2000. This raises the question of the extent to which policies, whatever their nature, can be based on such prospective studies.