Joint perspectives

Interview with Youssef Diab, Professor of Urban Engineering at Université Gustave Eiffel, member of Lab’URBA and Scientific Director at EIVP; Bernard Landau and Bénédicte Goussault,respectively President and member of the association La Seine n’est pas à Vendre (SPAV).

Youssef Diab : The question of mobility and accessibility to the Seine is very present in our research, and we study it mainly by using engineering maps or risk maps. When a colleague told us about sensitivity maps, a tool we were unfamiliar with, we realised that studying the interactions between technical maps and maps created by local residents could be interesting. The project grew from this idea: to see whether the two approaches are complementary or contradictory.

Bernard Landau : Hearing the views of those who live along the river means first of all bringing them together in a sufficiently structured framework to give legitimacy to the partners and people invited to the workshops we wanted to organise. SPAV’s added value was that we had contacts. We had a number of towns in mind that matched the criteria we had selected, but the difficulty lay in finding local partners with whom it would be possible to organise these workshops and define the procedures for informing the public.

Bénédicte Goussault : We hadn’t expected such a wealth of stories. After they had finished drawing, the participants wanted to explain what they had done, and they had a lot to say. Their stories were rich and elaborate. This shows that it is difficult to tackle this type of subject without the participation of citizens, and that the partnership between researchers and associations is essential when it comes to conducting participatory research.

Bernard Landau : This is a very important point, because the development of a collective awareness and appropriation of the river can only be achieved if local residents support the narrative and practice. I’m convinced of this, and I believe that this type of approach helps to create different narratives, there are those of researchers, decision-makers and residents.

Youssef Diab : From a scientific point of view, this has enabled us to discover sensitivity maps, and we continue to appreciate the usefulness of the concepts they embody. Secondly, we pointed out the methodological difficulties that can arise in this type of process, not because it involves researchers and associations, but because of the technical and social issues involved. The question that emerged was: how can these two aspects be combined to help elected representatives make decisions? They cannot be content with maps drawn by geographers or planners. We need to get local residents more involved, not just in the consultations required by law, but rather upstream, on how they perceive their local area.