Soil Conservation and perception of soil ecosystem services in periurban areas
The article focuses on the issue of soil preservation in the face of its consumption for urban development. Despite legislation that increasingly promotes land sobriety, soil consumption remains at a high rate in France. Approaches based on the recognition of ecosystem services are being developed to improve the conservation of natural resources. Do these approaches succeed in influencing the consumption of land by local elected authorities? What is the diversity of perceptions of ecosystem services and of development strategies among local elected authorities? Through the concept of ecosystem services, we analyze the perceptions and uses of land by elected authorities in six French periurban areas. By crossing the discourses on the ecosystem services of soils and their actual consumption, we show the limit of a normative approach of ecosystem services for the regulation of land uses.