Geography

The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is located in central Mexico at the state border of Michoacán and Mexico, is the primary wintering area for the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and an important water aquifer for Toluca and Mexico City valley. Since the reserve׳s expansion in 2000, several efforts have been made to integrate nature preservation and social development. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to analyse the territorial dynamics generated by the participation mechanisms that have been implemented in this region. Mexican environmental law only allows the National Commission of Protected Areas to make final decisions, thus, true participative management, defined as effective citizen power, including in the decision-making processes between citizens and institutions, is not legally recognized in the country. However, some mechanisms exist to enhance participation. The Monarch Fund, which pays for environmental services, has helped to improve acceptance of the protected area, even though opportunity costs are not fully covered. In the process of establishing leadership, NGOs play a central role as valid intermediaries between institutional and local resident stakeholders, working for increased social participation. However, strengthening social participation is limited by the characteristics of Mexican social organizations, ejidos and comunidades, in which three social classes exist with different rights pertaining to each category. Nevertheless, micro-regional councils and the consultative council make a long-term relationship between stakeholders possible; every inhabitant, regardless of social status, can take part in the process. These elements led us to state that participation is not exemplary but is quite promising.

Les recherches menées dans le cadre d'un mémoire de master 1 Histoire et de l'exposition "Lyon au XVIIIe, un siècle surprenant" au musées Gadagne en 2012 ont permis d'établir un catalogue des représentations graphiques (estampe, dessin, peinture) de la ville de Lyon au XVIIIe siècle. Si l'on observe une continuité dans le choix des sujets et espaces représentés par les artistes, cette période voit aussi l'émergence de nouveaux thèmes, en lien avec les transformations urbaines de Lyon. Ces images urbaines constituent des sources d'un grand intérêt pour la connaissance de la ville au XVIIIe siècle.

L’Exposition internationale urbaine inaugurée en mai 1914 est le troisième grand événement de ce type organisé à Lyon, après les expositions universelles de 1872 et de 1894. Cette manifestation bénéficie d’une très bonne image dans la presse locale et nationale de l’époque. Les journaux s’intéressent en particulier aux visites officielles ainsi qu’aux pavillons étrangers et plusieurs numéros spéciaux sont consacrés à l’Exposition. Début août 1914, la mobilisation générale puis la déclaration de guerre perturbent fortement l’Exposition, désormais éclipsée dans les journaux par les informations politiques et militaires.

The use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to produce a vector map of Lyon in the late 18th century opens up many perspectives in the valorization of historical and artistic sources. In most historical mapping projects, the spatial data are obtained by scanning ancient paper maps (Tice and Steiner, Giuseppe Vasi's Grand Tour of Rome : Imago Urbis, 2008) or by digitizing these sources to create a vector map usable in GIS (City of Toulouse Municipal Archives, Urban-Hist, 2006/2012). It raises the problem of the superposition of all objects at two different dates. The goal of the study was to produce a high quality vector base map in GIS, in order to study iconographic representations of Lyon in the 18th century (paintings, engravings, drawings) very finely. The chosen year for this vector map is 1792 for several reasons. It is just before the Siege of Lyon in 1793 which caused a lot of building destructions in the town. Additionally, most of the urban pictures of Lyon from this time have been made during the last quarter of the 18th century. Taking as a reference the vector town map of Lyon based on the cadastral map in the early 19th century (Gauthiez, 2010) we used the regressive method to reconstruct the map of Lyon in 1792. The objects which are the same in 1792 and 1830 have been duplicated from the 1830 layer to the 1792 layer. The objects which did not exist anymore in 1830 have been drawn using three ancient maps of Lyon as sources (Séraucourt, 1740 ; Joubert, 1773 ; Villionne, 1799). The produced vector map can be superimposed to Lyon’s urban reference system (SUR, 2010). The use of a vector reconstructed map by regressive method allows a very detailed study of urban pictures, such as the determination of the exact positions of the points of views. A first method consists in detecting the known urban elements (bridges, churches…) in the picture and to draw vertical axes between two elements. Then, by reporting these axes on the vector map, the point of view can be found. Another method is based on John Orrell’s work on the view of London by Wenceslaus Hollar (Orrell, 1983). We can draw what Orrell calls “the central ray”, a vertical axis which passes through the picture plane at 90°. The elements which are on this axis are strictly drawn front view because it is the artist’s line of sight. By using these two methods on a large panoramic view of Lyon (Vue de Cléric, 1719-1720) five points of view have been accurately located. The image can thus be divided into five parts, drawn from five different places. Some of the spatial data produced through GIS have been put into a digital device, which is part of the permanent exhibition of the Lyon Historical Museum (Musées Gadagne). The interactive interface linking the vector map and the picture allows to understand the way the artist created the work by using several points of view. The user can visualize which part of the picture matches each point of view. One of the major challenges of this digital tool is to make the museum visitors aware that these ancient urban pictures always need to be viewed with a critical eye, because they are not perfect representations of reality.

L’utilisation d’un système d’information géographique pour créer un plan vecteur de Lyon à la fin du XVIIIe siècle ouvre d’intéressantes perspectives concernant la valorisation des documents historiques et artistiques relatifs à la ville. Prenant comme référence le plan vecteur de Lyon vers 1830 d’après le cadastre napoléonien (Gauthiez, 2008), nous avons reconstitué une cartographie de Lyon en 1792, afin de servir de base à la géolocalisation d’un corpus d’images urbaines de Lyon du XVIIIe siècle (peinture, estampe, dessin). Ce plan vecteur a ensuite permis la recherche et la localisation précise des multiples points de vue utilisés pour la réalisation d’une grande vue gravée de Lyon vers 1719 (vue de Cléric). Les résultats de cette étude ont été intégrés à un outil numérique de médiation culturelle créé par l’auteur et disponible depuis 2014 au Musée d’histoire de Lyon (Musées Gadagne).