PROTEGER: an innovative ecological engineering project for riverbank protection in Guadeloupe
2019
To guarantee the safety of property and people, Guadeloupe local authorities must carry out work to protect the banks of watercourses and gullies. In most cases, these constructions are made of pure or concrete riprap. Although these civil engineering techniques are well managed and sometimes indispensable, they have a strong negative impact on the functioning of riparian ecosystems. In relation to civil engineering, soil bioengineering represents a softer and more respectful option, from an environmental and landscape perspective, and is also generally less expensive. Soil bioengineering is both an old and innovative solution based on nature: its implementation imitates effective natural models to control and prevent erosion.
In the West Indies, the natural flora of riverine network system has hardly been studied and local species are still not used extensively in the work of protecting watercourse. The lack of knowledge of riparian ecosystems in Guadeloupe led to the emergence of the “Proteger” project in 2015 to promote soil bioengineering techniques on riverbank of this territory.
The first phase of this project (2016-2018) aimed to identify the thirty local species most suited to maintain riverbanks. Trees, shrubs, ferns and herbs owning to different riparian ecosystems were therefore selected.
The second phase of the project (2019-2022) consists of control propagation of these species, in order to feed bioengineering works.
Three different interconnected experimentations concerning germination ability, stem cuttings propagation, growth and development of seedlings of the selected species have been designed on a complex conceptual framework.
Because stem cutting propagation is widely used for bioengineering works and because it represents a low cost, fast and effective way to obtain plant material, we conducted a first experiment aiming to evaluate the stem cutting propagation potential of twenty-six ligneous species. This communication presents cutting ability of these Antillean riverine forest species.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
0
References
0
Citations
NaN
KQI