L'objectif de cet article est d'introduire la prise en compte des Services Écosystémiques (SE), c'est-à-dire les bénéfices que la société retire du fonctionnement des écosystèmes, dans le cadre des procédures d'évaluation des projets d'infrastructures de transport terrestres. La prise en compte des SE dans les outils d'évaluation de projet, l'étude d'impact environnemental et le bilan socio-économique, peut sensiblement améliorer les décisions publiques. Pour montrer cela, nous commençons par mettre en lumière les différents défis associés à l'intégration des SE dans les décisions en matière d'implantation d'infrastructures de transport. L'intégration ne peut être faite que si l'estimation des SE, en termes de changements d'offre, de demande et de valeurs associées à ces changements, est faite de manière spatialement explicite. Nous illustrons ce point, dans un premier temps, à travers l'étude de la perte d'un service : la régulation du climat global engendrée par la construction d'une ligne grande vitesse dans l'ouest de la France. Puis, nous approfondissons la question de la combinaison de la perte directe et de la perte indirecte de services due aux impacts de l'infrastructure sur la connectivité des entités spatiales. Pour les deux types d'impacts nous intégrons des seuils potentiels sur la fourniture de services en proposant une méthode de prise en compte des effets sur des écosystèmes particulièrement sensibles.Nous appliquons cette méthode au même cas de projet d'infrastructure et comparons différentes options de tracé afin de donner un exemple de la manière dont les choix pourraient être améliorées en cartographiant les pertes directe et indirecte de SE. Enfin, nous tentons de montrer l'intérêt de la prise en compte des SE dans l'étude d'impact et le bilan socio-économique de manière à mesurer l'information supplémentaire donnée par une telle intégration. Une attention particulière est portée au caractère applicable de l'analyse aux cadres réglementaires actuels entourant ces deux outils. Nous montrons que ce type d'analyse peut éclairer et orienter différentes étapes d'un projet d'infrastructure: des études préliminaires, à l'étude du tracé final. Dans le cas des études d'impact, l'intégration de ces considérations peut permettre de mesurer la perte de services engendrée par chaque tracé d'infrastructure et d'intégrer ces pertes en tant que nouveau critère de choix de tracé. Concernant le bilan socio-économique, la perte de services exprimée en termes monétaires peut permettre de donner une indication quant à la perte sociale engendrée par le tracé final en matière de capital naturel. Plus spécifiquement ce type d'étude peut permettre une meilleure identification des mesures d'insertions les plus appropriées, en élargissant le types d'impacts pris en compte et en donnant des indications quantitatives des coûts engendrées par les différentes options d'implémentation. Ceci peut permettre aux parties prenantes du projet de mieux appréhender les différents effets engendrés par le projet, à une plus grande échelle, leur permettant de sortir des strictes frontières du projet et des contrôles règlementaires. / The purpose of this thesis is to broaden the assessment process of terrestrial transport infrastructure into the field of Ecosystem Services (ES), i.e., the benefits people derive from ecosystems. Taking into account ES in an ex-ante assessment of public infrastructure projects can be of critical importance for the improvement of transportation decision-making tools, such as environmental impact assessment and cost-benefit analysis. To achieve this, we first review the major challenges to integrate the ES approach into transport infrastructure decisions. This inclusion is only possible if changes in ES, involved by the project, are explained in a spatially explicit way. We illustrate this point, in a first step, by assessing the loss of a global climate regulation service due to the soil sealing caused by a infrastructure construction, using the example of a high-speed rail in Western France.We further deepen the issue of combining direct loss of ES with indirect loss due to impacts of the infrastructure on landscape connectivity. For both direct and indirect effects we also integrate potential threshold effects on ES loss. We compare implementation options, for the same case of infrastructure project, to provide an example of how choices can be improved by mapping ES loss associated with a combination of direct and indirect impacts. Finally, we provide a test of the usefulness of the ES consideration into environmental impact assessment and cost benefit analysis in order to assess the additional information it may bring. Attention is paid to the applicable character of methods to the real legal framework within which they must be conduced. We show that this type of analysis can enlighten and provide guidance at different stages of transport project: from preliminary studies to the study of the final implementation option. For environmental impact assessment, the integration of an ES based approach opens the possibility of measuring a loss in ES supply (and its economic value) providing a means of selecting among different route option for the infrastructure. For cost-benefit analysis, since the ES loss induced by the selected route option is expressed in monetary terms, it can be integrated as a standard social cost in the analysis, permitting a more efficient control of natural capital loss. More specifically, this type of analysis can help designing appropriate environmental measures by expanding the types of impacts assessed, and provide a quantitative assessment of the cost related to the final chosen option. Then, it may help project stakeholders to apprehend the effects on a broader (ecosystem) scale instead of staying confined into project boundaries and regulatory check-lists.

La particularité et l'enjeu du sujet de recherche résident dans la confrontation entre vision urbanistique de l'espace public, approche physique de la mesure acoustique et prise en compte de la perception de l'environnement sonore. Notre étude de l'évaluation d'ambiances sonores urbaines a pour terrain plusieurs espaces publics. Nous problématisons notre réflexion autour de l'appréhension de la perception sonore et de son évaluation en vue d'en souligner certains paramètres influents. La méthodologie est élaborée dans le but de coupler données perceptives et mesures physiques. Ainsi, une première étape d'enquête in situ aboutit à un corpus composé de 174 questionnaires, 513 photographies et 18 entretiens non directifs de groupe. Puis des mesures acoustiques sont pratiquées aux mêmes temporalités. Enfin, une seconde étape d'entretiens individuels approfondis menés avec les 29 participants est complétée par la réalisation de 145 cartes mentales sonores. Cette méthodologie multi-facettes permet de déterminer l'influence de divers paramètres tels que la présence humaine, la naturalité, la minéralité, la saisonnalité et les formes urbaines sur l'évaluation spatiale et sonore au sein d'espaces publics. / The particularity and challenge of this research subject lie in the confrontation between the urbanistic vision of the public space, the physical approach to acoustic measurement and the consideration of how the sonic environment is perceived. Several types of public spaces were used to study the assessment of urban sonic ambiances. We problematize our study of the understanding and assessment of sound perception in order to highlight some of its relevant parameters. The methodology was designed to combine perceptive data and physical measurements. The first stage of in situ investigation thus provided a corpus of 174 questionnaires, 513 photographs and 18 non-directive group interviews. Acoustic measurements were then made at the same temporalities. Finally, a second stage of in-depth individual interviews conducted with the 29 participants was completed with the realization of 145 mental mind maps. This multifaceted methodology helped to determine the influence of several parameters such as human presence, nature, the mineral aspect, seasonality and urban forms on the spatial and sonic assessment in public spaces.

Ecotourism has often failed to deliver appropriate, tangible benefits to host communities living near protected areas in developing regions of Africa. The Robford Community Conservation Benefit Centre (RCCBC) model was developed as a means to overcome many of the common problems of community-based ecotourism and to enhance the range and flow of benefits to such communities by developing a suite of products and programmes aimed specifically at scientists, volunteer tourists and participatory environmental research tourists. This study tests the aims that the necessary tourism, geographic, social and research conditions are present for the implementation of the RCCBC model in a local community situated close to the Great Fish River Nature Reserve (GFRNR) in South Africa. Situational assessment fieldtrips determined that the GFRNR, its immediate tourism egion and the ten settlements surrounding the nature reserve conformed to RCCBC development guidelines and were suitable for further detailed investigation. One of the settlements, Glenmore Village, conformed most closely to the RCCBC model’s guidelines for selecting a preferred host community. A census survey of all households in Glenmore determined a demographic profile of village residents. A random sample survey of 70 Glenmore households established a social profile of the community’s residents and their attitude to various aspects of the RCCBC model. A spatial analysis of the Glenmore precinct determined that sufficient, suitable land was available for the development of RCCBC products and programmes. The findings of the research indicated that the tourism, geographic, social and research conditions were present at Glenmore, the GFRNR and its surrounding tourism region for the implementation of the RCCBC model and the development of the model’s proposed products and programmes at Glenmore Village. Implementation of the RCCBC model at Glenmore and the GFRNR as a pilot study could introduce a new way of bringing tangible, meaningful benefits to select communities located close to protected areas in existing tourism regions that have failed to benefit either completely or partially from traditional forms of ecotourism development in the past. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

Ecotourism has often failed to deliver appropriate, tangible benefits to host communities living near protected areas in developing regions of Africa. The Robford Community Conservation Benefit Centre (RCCBC) model was developed as a means to overcome many of the common problems of community-based ecotourism and to enhance the range and flow of benefits to such communities by developing a suite of products and programmes aimed specifically at scientists, volunteer tourists and participatory environmental research tourists. This study tests the aims that the necessary tourism, geographic, social and research conditions are present for the implementation of the RCCBC model in a local community situated close to the Great Fish River Nature Reserve (GFRNR) in South Africa. Situational assessment fieldtrips determined that the GFRNR, its immediate tourism egion and the ten settlements surrounding the nature reserve conformed to RCCBC development guidelines and were suitable for further detailed investigation. One of the settlements, Glenmore Village, conformed most closely to the RCCBC model’s guidelines for selecting a preferred host community. A census survey of all households in Glenmore determined a demographic profile of village residents. A random sample survey of 70 Glenmore households established a social profile of the community’s residents and their attitude to various aspects of the RCCBC model. A spatial analysis of the Glenmore precinct determined that sufficient, suitable land was available for the development of RCCBC products and programmes. The findings of the research indicated that the tourism, geographic, social and research conditions were present at Glenmore, the GFRNR and its surrounding tourism region for the implementation of the RCCBC model and the development of the model’s proposed products and programmes at Glenmore Village. Implementation of the RCCBC model at Glenmore and the GFRNR as a pilot study could introduce a new way of bringing tangible, meaningful benefits to select communities located close to protected areas in existing tourism regions that have failed to benefit either completely or partially from traditional forms of ecotourism development in the past. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)