Contenu du sommaire

Abstract. - Is there a geomorphological specificity of the alpine environment and of the mountains in general way ? Different geographic gradients regarding relief, climate, soil, erosion... can be definited and determine an original and changing geographical evolution. They generate morpho- climatic systems, more and more efficient when the altitude grows. The value of the total erosion in millimeters a year is increasing with the altitude, from less than, 0,2 mm in the alluvial wal- leys to 1 mm and more in the high mountain; Gradients and limits lead us to propose a new definition and division of the mountainous landscapes, in basis of a synthetic perception of physical interactions and not only according the vegetal arrangement along the slopes.

Abstract. — The biological response to the variability of the ecological parameters and to the strenght of the transfers is analysed. The specifity of the spatial organisation and vegetation changes pattern are explained by the magnitude of these phenomena. Then, the relationships between watermatter flows and vegetation are described.

Abstract. — Mountain specificity is classicaly described by environmental parameters and by endemic organisms. The diversity of plants and animals and the diversity of their habitats in small areas are the most important characteristics of mountain systems. Complementary of natural resources sustain the life of people and animals.

Abstract. — About hydrological and climatic measures in mountainous area : the handicaps of environment.

Abstract. — Aerial and spatial remote sensing collect for the geographer a diachronic and located datas basis. In mountain aeras, this use needs specific images processing andanalasys before any interpretation of registrations.

Summary. — The representation of mountains, originally linked to military requirements, is characterized by graphic difficulties and technical innovations, by its more or less abundant scientific contents, appropriate methodologies, and functional objectives defined by the needs of planners, tourists and teachers.

Abstract. — Are social relations in mountaineous areas specific ? The example of French Northern Alpes shows that economic activities are more dependant on physical environment than similar activities in the plain. It is this factor that makes alpine work distinctive, with dominance of primary sector, small holdings, pluri-activities and nomadism, seasonal rythms and financial precarity. These characteristics can all induce anomie. To our mind it is the danger which is contrabalanced by the high degree of solidarity found in the families and the villages and in religion in alpine communities. It can also set off a process ofreterri- torialisation and give birth to new territorial conciousness.

Abstract. — In the mountaneous zone of the northern Alps, demographic renewal has succeded a century of rural exodus; but this means the mountains are being re-occupied in an urban fashion, either on the edges or in islands and at times profoundly because activities are largely touristic and residential. In this region with a close network of towns, progress, new methods of transport and communication have brought an end to isolation. Thus the life style of the mountain people will soon only be a framework choosen as opposed to that of a town, but entirely dependant on its dynamic. In a generation, there will no longer be any mountain people nor a specific society but «white suburbs» with advan- tages and disadvantages like all the material and immaterial communications. These profound changes must be taken into account in any vision of the future that we wish for or that we refuse.

Summary. — In the first part of this article the recent development of age structures in French mountainous regions is analysed. Variations in indices of old-age from 1975-1982 show extreme inequalities in the tendency towards an excessive ageing of the population which is characteristic of mountainous areas. In the second part, an analysis is made for the period 1975-1982 of the role played by new arrivals, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, on demographic processes in these areas.

Abstract. — The author shows that the French mountains have a land specificity which has to be highly considered in the field of town and planning.

Abstract. — The effects of relief on mountain nature and societies are numerous. Amongst the main consequences of them, we can call up complexity of systems and adaptation of the traditionnal ways ofmange- ment. The ways of developpment during these last decades have upset a lot of balances, by denying some specific features of mountain areas. Thereby, the necessity of a new approach comes out, no more based on a breaking-down method, but leaded within a global way and based on the notion of space functions. This seems to be able to restore the consi- deration of these specificities. French mountain policy appears then as the draft of a new specific look laid on these areas.

Abstract. — Mountains : the unique places of an immoderate leisure. Has mountain a specificity among the spaces, the places, that urban people imagine and use ? To ask the question this way is equivalent to question oneself about the role of «there» in relation to «here». This article summurizes a research based on a very wide enquiry made with hundreds of inhabitants of Pau, France. It shows the strong connivance which exists between the mountains sports and the city.

Abstract. — The fact that the Earth's surface exhibits spatial variation is an axiom of geography. Without this axiom the very notion of geographical space is meaningless. With it, it is easy to deduce the existence of spatial originality. The (scientific) operational nature of spatial originality can be explained in terms of geographer's perception of the real world and their conception of Nature.

Abstract. — Mountain geography :from the field to the problematic. When one asks the question of the eventual specificity of mountain geography, it's necessary to consider simultaneously the specificity of the field of research and the originality of the adopted problematic. The mountain exists through the concept of territory which requires from the researcher to take in account the relation between the pratice of space and its representation.

Abstract. — Since the 18th century, geographers have been curiously attracted by mountains, and most of their works tried to spread the idea of a specificity of the mountain. In this article, the author try to show through the exemples of european naturalists of the 18th century and french geographers of the 1910-1970 period, how these discourses about the specificity of mountains, for from being scientifically convincing, lead first to legitimate their scientific theories and to justify their practices of research.

Abstract. — Mountain aera and complexity of management. This article attemps to explain that the mountain aera is specific, not through its main characteristics, but owing to the complexity of management. This one refers to the increasing number of public sectorial interven- tions. A crisis of sectorial management emerged in consequence of conflicting and different aims of sectorial public policy in the early seventies. The government have changed from sectorial action to more general action, or overall development action. The implementation of such a policy is very difficult because its applications are faced to the tedious but necessary coordination of various logics of public agencies. The January 1985 Moutains Act sets forth «the principe of the right to be different and to autonomous development in mountain regions». This one has allowed new categories of local actors to emerge which pre - viously had not been very influential, namely the local authority. The new pratices developped between center and periphery are dedicated to a tentative integration of these logics at regional level for a more balanced development. Politicians and professionals in moutain regions must therefore establish a favourable balance power in order to negociate the necessary aid within this new framework. As for the new institutions — National Mountains Council and the comittees for each massif, it can be said that their advisory status weakens their role and therefore restricts their usefulness. In view of this situation, the management of this aera is a intricate and difficult problem, and the notion of moutain specificity as equivocal notion don't clear up this question.

Abstract. — Capacity of perception of «mountain specificity» infrench national politics is more and more labile. This situation contrasts with what is a relative permanent reality. This lability is strangely dependant of the part given to mountains in this politic. The analysis of space management and the politic of mountain give us an other clue of the weakness of perception of «mountain specificity» : its construction is based more upon a descriptive notion of what is mountain than of what are its caracteristics systems, its interelations, and its global dynamisms.