Human and Nature interactions in two French valleys during the last 200 years : role of the technique
Since the XIX century, European societies have progressively forgotten natural hazards. Physical divides between our societies and Nature triggered in our minds the believed of safety and domination against Nature. We often build house and road close to river where floods usually happened. In this research we have studied the geomorphological and urban evolution of the Rhone valley near the city of Vienne (France), as well as near the city of Allemont (French Alps) near the Grand Maison Dam. Environment and societies have deeply changed during the last 200 years in those areas. Coevolution of environment and societies occurred in relation with technological improvement and technical proliferation. Technics has deeply participated to construct nature and society in these areas. Contemporaneously, nature played a determinant role to structure our society and our technics. The 1856 floods that affected the Rhône valley favored habitants exodus from valleys and mountain to urbanized area, hydraulic planning and indirectly contributed to accelerate the new social, economic and technological organization often called “industrial revolution”. Surprisingly the strong interaction between our environment and our societies occurred whereas nature was becoming invisible in the urbanized areas.