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This study provides a tool by means of which a road planner, usually a civil engineer, can achieve a durable infrastructure of high quality, acceptable to all parties concerned. The various elements which facilitate the work of planning are united into a modernized methodology for the elaboration of road projects, called a methodology of concert. After analysing the sort of problems encountered in the planning of road infrastructure (Chapter 1), the author classifies the main causes of these into a hierarchy. This brings to light many factors which may stem from the structure of the project, the environment or from the various participants. The modernization of the working methods of road planners is a highly practical idea based on case studies (Chapter 2). The particular study on which this work is based is the "Comparaison de variantes 1999", made on the A 144 road between the cities of Villeneuve and Le Bouveret. From an initial group of four variants, which were a source of much contention between the interested parties, an optimal and consensual solution, called "Solution COPIL", was evolved in seven months, by means of this study. The choice of this solution was based on a method of multicriteria decision analysis of a completely aggregational form. This used the weightings defined by all the political partners in the study. The present author was allowed to sit in on about fifteen working sessions of the Technical Group and of the Guiding Committee, which consists of the political partners. The examination of this particular case provided him with much valuable information about the process of elaboration of a road plan. The requirements and aims of road infrastructure are analysed (Chapter 3). Here, the focus is on the definition of individual and collective needs and the evolution of social expectation of the general public. The implementation of public policy is then examined. Particular emphasis is laid on the principal public policies whose spatial incidence affects the road plan : land distribution, transport and environment. Some attention is paid to the consideration of mobility, its value, characteristics and future developments. The difference between the standard and the norm of road infrastructure is described explicitly. The various stages of the process of elaboration of a road plan are analysed in depth. (Chapter 4) Particular attention is paid to the initial stages of impulsion for the elaboration of the project and of the identification of needs, since these influence strongly the quality and the acceptability of the project. The author then proposes that the various stages of road infrastructure be presented in the form of a life cycle of which the present study only concerns some aspects. Various special procedures are then analysed critically in order to extract propositions to be integrated into the methodology of concert. The type of partners in the road project and the characteristics of the relationships between them are discussed. (Chapter 5) The set of weightings made by the political partners in the case study "Comparaison de variantes 1999" are used to analyze the relations between the various participants in this study. A "representative profile of a participant" is defined from the examination of their individual weighting profiles. The notion of sustainability is presented (Chapter 6). After a recapitulation of definitions and of the reasons for this new idea, the principles of a durable mobility are presented. The practical aspects of this new paradigm of society for the planner are defined and discussed. They concern the inclusion of the life cycle in the analysis of the effects of a project, the weighing of interests from the three points of view of economy, social utility and the environment, public participation and the use of consultation right from the start of the study. Public participation (Chapter 7) is an important element in the elaboration of a road plan as it ensures its acceptation by the public. It may even allow the phenomenon of appropriation of a project by peripheral partners to develop. The various forms of public participation are presented in a table showing almost seventy which can affect a road project. The detailed description of some of these methods are given in appendix. Rules for applying the methodology of concert are then presented and the advantages and limits of this are discussed. After in-depth consideration of the decision procedure and its participants, with details of the various subjective and objective factors which may influence it, the study describes the methods of multicriteria decision analysis. (Chapter 8) Terminology is defined and the main types of these methods are presented. In this study, partial aggregation methods have been applied to the road infrastructure projects. These methods may be divided into three categories according to whether they are applicable to a situation of choice, of sorting or of order. A complete presentation is then given of the principles and ways of using the various methods of partial aggregation of the Electre family (I, II, III, IV, IS and Tri). For projects of road infrastructure, the method of partial aggregation Electre III is suggested. This method is based on the idea of fuzzy criteria, defined by thresholds of preference, indifference or of veto. It can be used with computer software which greatly simplifies the work of the planner. To illustrate the use of this method, Electre III have been applied to the case of "Comparaison de variantes 1999". The method was used on the set of weightings defined by the members of the Guiding Committee. The specific software is convivial and intuitively simple to use, so that the author was able to recommend it to the road planner. Information systems of spatial reference are described and their relevance for road projects in the establishment of optimal corridors or as a support for a method of multicriteria decision analysis. The methodology of concert for the elaboration of road plans is presented in detail (Chapter 9) in the form of successive flow diagrams illustrating the various stages of the procedure. These diagrams, based on an iterative process of study, provide the basis of the methodology of concert. They are intended for the road planner who follows them through and orients his planning according to his answers to the various questions contained there. In conclusion (Chapter 10), various prospects for the utilization of the proposed modernized methodology are indicated, together with the lines of possible future research suggested by the results and ideas contained in this study.

Energy is an essential factor regarding the economic development and for providing a high standard of living to the population of any country. Because energy is produced mainly using classic fuels (coal, oil and gas) for a few decades there are signals regarding their exhaustion. Therefore, mankind should concern more about finding viable alternatives to replace the classical fuels. This way the use of nuclear fuels appeared, then the force of the wind, of the tides and of the photovoltaic cells. However, there are still enough energy resources for further growth of the global energy production. The great consumers are both the major energy producers, only their hierarchy has changed and changes over time. The paper presents all these countries, and also Romania, including its specific developments in recent years.

[Paper in French] The European public policy in favor of the biodiesel consumption is highly debated. Available estimates of the induced land use changes conclude that this policy is inefficient to reduce emissions of GreenHouse Gas. We show that the crop yield evolutions in these estimates are significantly lower than the observed and expected evolutions. This difference is directly related to biased calibration choice of behavioral parameters. We show using the GTAP-BIO framework that a consistent calibration of these parameters leads to a strong reduction (by around 80% in the long run) of the land use changes and induced emissions.

This work focuses on the refinement of sea-states spectral characterisation in the frame of the development of wave energy converters (WECs). Until now, this characterisation has been limited to the consideration of basic global parameters such as the significant wave height and mean wave period. The present work namely underlines - thanks to simplified numerical models - that such a description is not sufficient to account for the performance of WECs, for they still exhibit a large variability in terms of mean production while wave energy and period are fixed. It is therefore needed to refine this description by introducing new wave characteristics, such as the wave groupiness, which is itself related to the sea-state's spectral bandwidth. The classical - spectral - approaches, allowing a statistical analysis of wave groups along with other works in the literature, permit to draw a set of relevant spectral parameters. The sensitivity of simplified offshore WEC models (linear in the frequency domain) to these parameters is then observed. The question of deterministic mean power estimation - namely in the case of non-linear models - is also raised, for it is also related somehow to the bandwidth of the wave field. A sea-state is actually made of a superimposition of various wave systems (as swells and wind-sea). It is then possible to refine even more its description, namely through the multi-system approach. The latter enables indeed to track in time and space the wave systems independently of each other. An algorithm for the automatic spatiotemporal analysis is proposed and illustrated to this end. Lastly, the influence of such description refinements (wave groupiness and multi-system approach) is observed at several locations (Portugal, North Sea, California) by considering various WEC models (linear axi-symmetric heaving devices, 3D SEAREV with non-linear hydrodynamics): in all cases, it is shown that both extended descriptions allow for a better characterisation of the mean WEC performance at both short and long term. Ces travaux portent sur la caractérisation spectrale des états de mer dans le cadre du développement de systèmes récupérateurs de l'énergie des vagues (SREVs). Jusqu'alors, cette caractérisation s'est limitée à des paramètres globaux basiques tels que la hauteur significative et la période moyenne des vagues. Les présents travaux soulignent notamment, à l'aide de modèles simplifiés, que cette description est insuffisante car un SREV montre encore une grande variabilité en termes de production moyenne, ces deux paramètres étant fixés par ailleurs. On s'intéresse donc à raffiner cette description en considérant des caractéristiques de vagues nouvelles, comme le groupement de vagues, lui-même lié à la largeur de bande de l'état de mer. Les approches classiques - spectrales - sur l'étude descriptive des groupes de vagues et la littérature permettent de dégager un certain nombre de paramètres spectraux. On observe ensuite la sensibilité de modèles de SREVs offshore simplifiés (modèles fréquentiels linéaires) à ces paramètres de largeur globale. La question de l'estimation déterministe de performance moyenne (dans le cas de convertisseurs non-linéaires) est également abordée, étant elle-même liée à cette caractéristique. Un état de mer étant constitué de plusieurs systèmes de vagues (houles, mer de vent), il est encore possible de raffiner sa description grâce à une approche multisystème. Celle-ci permet en outre de suivre ces systèmes indépendamment dans le temps et l'espace. Un algorithme d'analyse spatio-temporelle est proposé et illustré à cet égard. Enfin, l'influence de ces raffinements est observée en différents sites (Portugal, Mer du Nord, Californie) sur des cas de SREVs divers (systèmes axi-symétriques linéaires, SEAREV 3D d'hydrodynamique non-linéaire), et montre que dans tous les cas, le raffinement apporté permet de mieux caractériser la production à court et long terme de ces dispositifs.

Climate change will affect agricultural production conditions, which will translate in impacts on yield and cost of production for Quebec farmers. This would likely affect the relative competitive position of Quebec in North America. Using the Delphi technique and partial budgets, climate change scenarios for the 2050 period were elaborated and their impact on relative competitiveness assessed for Quebec and its competitors in North America. Results indicate that Quebec competitive position would improve due to more favorable conditions for corn and apple production and due to worsen conditions for the competitors in maple syrup production.

This thesis aims to examine the causal mechanisms of living environments on leisure mobilities and verify whether their inclusion is actually able to challenge the compact city as a sustainable urban form. The research focuses on the Swiss case and in particular the cities of Geneva and Zurich. The empirical approach is based on three types of additional analysis carried out in these areas: contextual analysis, quantitative analyzes based on data from the Mobility and Transport Microcensus 2010 and qualitative analysis through interviews. The main results are the following: â ¢ We find the existence of two opposing logics of association between land density and distance traveled: a decreasing link to daily mobility, but a positive correlation for occasional mobility (day trips and overnight trips). The denser is the living environment, the greater is the distance for this mobility. â ¢ Adding the two types of mobility to obtain a total average, we find that the inner city dwellers displayed, ultimately, much higher totals than would suggest the analysis of their daily mobility alone which therefore represent an invitation to invalidate the link compact city=short distances. â ¢ By transforming these distances into environmental impact, however, our calculations show that even while taking into account the many trips of urban dwellers, the negative relationship between total energy consumption and land density of the territory remains. â ¢ By examining in detail the share of leisure in daily and occasional mobility, we see that the logic of compensation is not what structures the links with urban environnements. In everyday life, the logic of proximity prevails: to live in the centre is rather correlated to more compactophile leisure and residing in the periphery to more leisure oriented towards the attributes of nature. â ¢ For occasional trips, we show firstly that compactophile mobilities represent a large part of these practices among all respondents, and secondly, that even in the case of very important and high energy consuming naturophile mobility, the relationship with the density of the living environment is not established. The central Genevans and are much less consumers of this type of leisure than people in the centre of Zurich even though their city is much more airy and green. Moreover, we also highlight, in peri-urban dwellers, a very intense mobility or this purpose. â ¢ The interpretation that we propose refers to lifestyles and residential choice of city dwellers which takes into account their leisure aspirations. These tastes are then translated into specific leisure activities and travel. In everyday life, they rely on proximity and functional, social and sensitive attributes of their living environment that they have chosen largely also for this. When it comes to breaking the routines during holidays and vacations, the same lifestyles result in significant occasional mobility whose motives can register in continuity of their daily lifestyle (loving the same things elsewhere) or by contrast (appreciate the diversity of spaces). In both cases, these motivations echo the valorisation of the diversity inherent in urbanity without questioning the urban residential location quality itself. Our results lead us ultimately to reject the compensation effect hypothesis and reaffirm, against the defenders of the sprawl-city, the virtues of the compact city, which remains a sustainable urban form, including for our leisure mobility.

A model of plant succession has been built for simulating the growth of six species, based on physiological processes such as photosynthesis, growth and maintenance respiration, carbon allocation, nitrogen absorption, fixation and remobilisation, organ mortality, seed dispersal and germination. The simulated global plant productivity decreases in response to an increase in soil nitrogen availability. The reason is a replacement of the rapidly-growing legume species by slow-growing shrub species that are higher than the legume and thus shade it. This paradoxical result could have a wide application field.

L'article se propose de réfléchir sur l'existence des collections dans les écomusées. En faisant tout d'abord une introduction sur l'évolution des concepts de la muséologie et sur ce qu'il faut entendre par écomusée, on verra que le rapport à l'objet a toujours été pris en compte. L'écomusée est une façon de concevoir le territoire et de faire face aux problèmes à travers la culture. L'écomusée travaille justement dans ce sens, du moment que la collection, ainsi que les autres activités proposées, témoignent de l'existence d'un patrimoine culturel local, qui est étroitement lié aux vocations économiques du territoire, au paysage et aux changements survenus dans le temps. This paper aims to reflect about the presence of collections in ecomuseums. We will start with a brief introduction on the evolution of museums studies and ecomuseology, which will show us that the relationship between objects and ecomuseums it has being considered since the beginning. The ecomuseum approach focuses on the recreation of territorial knowledge, which is based on the interconnection of know-hows and on the promotion of cultural heritage by individuals who reinterpret them as a collective resource. Using cultural heritage as an instrument of social and democratic action gives people the tools to understand their own cultural heritage, considered in its evolution, and helps to strengthen the local identity by increasing the population's awareness of the importance of taking action to safeguard its territory.

The study of two pollen sequences from El-Kala marshes allowed the reconstruction of the regional vegetation history supported by eight radiocarbon dates. Pollen assemblages from Bourdim site were dominated by local input of Alnus and Salix, while regional vegetation was characterized by scattered Quercus suber forests with a well-developed Erica arborea matorral. While the vegetation dynamics recorded at Bourdim is recent (Late Holocene), the majority of the pollen diagram from Garaat El-Ouez is contemporaneous to the Late Pleniglacial and is characterized by open woodlands with Pinus, Poaceae and several heliophilous herbs. The significant values of Cedrus pollen identified in this period indicate that the region of El-Kala most probably played the role of a refugium for this tree.