Landscapes and development

The landscapes of the Val de Loire convey the legacy of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, but they also bear witness to two thousand years of history between the inhabitants of the area and the river. The landscape aesthetic consecrated by UNESCO is the expression of a complex relationship, carefully woven over the years, which those who live in the region need to be able to understand, maintain and develop in order to pass it on to future generations more effectively.

- A landscape strategy for the whole site
- Levels of intervention
          - The river and its islands, banks and levees 
          - The overall landscape of the site 
          - Urban waterfronts, witnesses to an ancient river civilisation
- Public initiatives on landscape management 
          - The Loire Grandeur Nature interregional plan 
          - Heritage and environmental policies 
          - A partnership approach to management

Find out more about the initiatives led by key players in the Loire in the area of landscapes and development.

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  A landscape strategy for the whole site

The inclusion of the Val de Loire on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites as a living cultural landscape broadens protection of the monuments in the area to an obligation to take into account the physical, cultural, economic and social environment of the listed site. The Val de Loire World Heritage site combines ordinary and remarkable landscapes, densely populated urban areas and peri-urban areas used for agriculture and/or leisure.

The quality of the landscapes and their capacity for harmonious development become public issues about regional development and the approach to the landscape becomes the key to the conservation and enhancement of this shared heritage.

A management system for the site was put in place, in 2002, by the French central government and the regional councils of the Centre and Pays de la Loire regions. The definition of a landscape strategy for the whole site is one of its priorities for action.

This involves:
- setting out the principles of sustainable development combining ordinary and remarkable landscapes
- creating the conditions for management based on shared values of understanding and assimilation. 


  Levels of intervention

The Val de Loire UNESCO site is made up of a series of geographical entities, the Val d’Orléans, the Val blésois, the Val and the Varennes de Touraine, the Vallée d’Anjou and the Corniche angevine, all united by the Loire in both topographical and historical terms. This link is so strong that the people of Orleans, Blois, Tours and Anjou all refer to themselves as "ligériens" (from Liger, the Latin name for the Loire).

Two further shared issues appear in relation to the Val de Loire site, concerning the protection and promotion of the landscape based on three types of territory:
- the river and its islands, banks and levees
- the overall landscape of the site
- urban waterfronts, witnesses to an ancient river civilisation 


  The river and its islands, banks and levees

As a true "public space", the Loire both has an important role to play in terms of identity and image and acts as a reconciling force, which is decisive in terms of sharing developmental values. This development is one of the results of the attention paid to the river over the last twenty years or so by the French central government within the framework of the Plan Loire Grandeur Nature, an environmental management plan for the river, and community organisations involved in environmental issues.

It is a question of restoring "a culture of the river" with an emphasis on the environmental management of wetlands, maintaining access to the river and increased vigilance regarding the closing-off of landscapes, by controlling the spontaneous growth of vegetation and deliberate plantations in the low-water channel. But it is also a question of a living culture for the river, which demands the restoration of ports, slipways and quays, which are both heritage elements, public spaces and places to walk. 

  The overall landscape

Apart from the natural configuration of the site – the dimensions of the valley, the permanent variation in the low-water channel, the harmonious range of colours and the special nature of the light – the features that have been identified as determining factors that have shaped the overall landscape are:
- the panoramic views and the prospects from one bank to another,
- the visual breaks created by the hillsides used for agriculture and forestry,
- the urban waterfronts of the Loire, built linear spaces along the river, at the foot of or in the hillsides (cave dwellings),
- civil engineering structures built for protection (levees) or as infrastructure (quays, slipways, “dhuys” and groins) or to cross the river.

The compositional quality of the overall landscape is being severely threatened in these peri-urban and rural areas, including the closing-off of the landscapes in the low-water channel and the increase in urban development on the hillsides to the detriment of the vineyards and the viability of continuing to work them. The other priority in the Loire is the integration of infrastructure and taking this into account in the organisation of the landscape following in the footsteps of the approach taken by the architect and landscape designer Patrick Bouchain for the new bridge in Blois, the "François Mitterrand Bridge". 


  Waterfronts on the Loire

The Val de Loire is a profoundly urban river landscape, punctuated by trading and commercial areas, namely Orleans, Blois, Amboise, Tours, Saumur and, in the immediate environs, Chinon and Angers. Throughout the whole of the UNESCO site, it seems essential to restore the continuity of the identity of the Loire by taking as a basis common points of reference in terms of treating urban public spaces (streets, squares and parks) and peri-urban areas (the approaches to cities, towns and villages). This qualitative effort must be accompanied by the particular attention that needs to be paid to infrastructure in terms of lighting, street furniture and outdoor advertising, whether this is directional, informative or commercial.

Continuing in the tradition of the great 19th century parks, extensions to towns in the Loire are organised around vast peri-urban parks: planting is combined with the river, its banks, its quays and its wetlands. Towns are rediscovering a long-forgotten river and providing a backdrop for the natural element brought by the Loire, such as the "Parc de Loire" project in Orleans led by François Grether, the Parc des Méés in Blois designed by Vincent Tricaud, the "Parc de la Gloriette" in Tours developed in conjunction with the Conservatoire international de Chaumont sur Loire and the "Parc Balzac" in Angers. These areas are places for innovating and experimenting with the landscapes of the Val de Loire of the future. 


  Public initiatives on landscape management 

  The Plan Loire Grandeur Nature

The Plan Loire Grandeur Nature represents a framework for public initiatives within the site. This interregional programme, unique amongst French rivers, has been implemented across the whole of the Loire catchment area since 1994. It comprises three main areas: reducing the risks associated with flooding, improving water resources and natural spaces and promoting heritage, the area that covers the inclusion of the Val de Loire on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.

As a consequence of the Plan Loire Grandeur nature, almost 45% of the area of the municipalities within the site is covered by a Flood Risk Prevention Plan (PPRi) (Barnier law -1995). The dissemination of PPRi has entailed making use of Land Use Plans (POS) across the site, which are now being gradually replaced by Local Urban Development Plans (PLU). 


  Heritage and environmental policies

There is a very active public policy on heritage, architecture and the landscape in the Val de Loire. The site includes some of the oldest and greatest conservation areas in France: Saumur, Chinon, Tours, Amboise and Blois. 3.5% of the surface area of the municipalities within the UNESCO site is protected under the terms of the law of 2 May 1930 on the protection of natural monuments and sites of an artistic, historic, scientific, legendary or picturesque nature. The "Architectural, Urban and Landscape Heritage Protection Area" (ZPPAUP) mechanism is being used increasingly by municipalities located alongside the river in Maine-et-Loire (driven in particular by a regional quality label, "Small Character Town"). It covers increasingly large areas (the scope of the ZPPAUP in Orleans is 145 ha; that of the ZPPAUP in Saumur is 2,000 ha or 30% of the surface area of the municipality) and is taking on an intermunicipal dimension following in the footsteps of the actions undertaken on one of the tributaries of the Loire, the Loiret, instigated by six municipalities bordering the river.

Heritage policy is largely being extended to include natural areas. A first level of intervention is based on inventories of natural environments (ZNIEFF, ZICO), conservation areas limited to islands, shores and alluvial woodlands (nature reserves, by-laws on biotopes) and the creation of "Loire nature" sites managed by regional conservation organisations for natural and vulnerable natural areas, at the instigation of the departmental councils. The second level of intervention encompasses the Loire river corridor as a whole: the European network "Natura 2000" covers 25% of the surface area of the site, managed in accordance with contractual terms within a framework of targets-based documents. 

  ZNIEFF: Natural Areas of Fauna, Flora and Ecological Interest 
  ZICO: Important Areas for Bird Conservation 


  A partnership approach to management

The change we have seen is the increasingly important place given to partnerships between the French central government, local authorities and civil society in terms of heritage conservation. The restoration of a river culture is developing a little more each day based on the initiatives carried out in partnership with:
- the conservation organisations in the two regions:
          - Natural Heritage Conservation Organisation for the Centre region (CPNRC) 
          - Regional Conservation Centre for the banks of the Loire and its tributaries (CORELA)
- the community volunteer network Loire Nature
- the Loire - Anjou – Touraine Regional Natural Park
- the network of Chambers of Agriculture
- and the local authorities located alongside the river.

The reference document "Inhabiting and enhancing the Val de Loire landscapes" produced by the Val de Loire Mission, in partnership with the key players involved in managing the area, sets out a selection of some thirty "good practices" in terms of understanding, protecting, restoring, steering, developing and renewing the benchmark landscapes within the site.

Inhabiting and enhancing the Val de Loire landscapes: understanding, managing and building our living environment (PDF, 4 Mb)
This brochure sets out the issues around inclusion on the list of World Heritage sites, an inventory of public policy and some exemplary initiatives. It provides evidence of the reality of taking the landscape into account in light of a quality process that is applicable to all, and bears witness to the possibility of creating a real project culture from the landscape in the Val de Loire.


Find out more about the initiatives led by key players in the Loire in the area of landscapes and development.