News
2015-10-01
ITTECOP conferences in Sophia Antipolis, Nice (F)
ADEME of Sophia Antipolis in Antibes hosted a two-day conference on October 1st and 2nd 2015.
ITTECOP is a platform composed by the Ministry of Ecology and Energy and the Club of Linear Infrastructure and Biodiversity (CILB) composed by large linear infrastructures companies (electricity, gas, railways, highways...).
Day 1: Operational researches
The first day of the symposium, through different scientific researches, reviewed the operational research in the work supervised by ITTECOP: landscape dimension, biodiversity, support for public decision, perception of the several linear infrastructures on the landscape are all issues on which university studies are giving information. Institutional research situation was also analysed and discussed.
The afternoon was dedicated to three thematic workshops:
- Landscape at the crossroad between the various disciplines
- Cooperation between actors and countries
- Tools and models
The LIFE Elia-RTE team presented the results of its work in the second of the three workshops. Cooperation between actors and countries is found indeed on many levels of our work:
- Cooperation with local stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of project results for the « after-LIFE » : Regional Parks, hunters Federations, National Forestry Office, farmers, naturalists associations.
- Cooperation between countries also through the networking that made us meet 18 GRT (Electricity Transmission System Operator, TSO) in many Member States in Europe.
- Cooperation between countries with both Belgian and French TSO.
Day 2: the relationship between linear infrastructures and biodiversity
The second day of the symposium addressed the transport infrastructure in their relationships with biodiversity: brakes or ways to boost ecological continuity, role of wild pollinators, ecological transparency of rail infrastructure.
The conference ended with the question of compensation. In the French system called ERC (Avoid, Reduce, Compensate), selection, implementation and monitoring of compensation is a central topic in the inclusion of ecology in major infrastructure projects. The challenge here was to ask whether research can accompany the decisions on these compensation.
LIFE Elia, RTE, a certified project !
Each year, the ITTECOP program accredits research project for their exemplary character particularly on this issue of linear and biodiversity.
In 2015, the project LIFE Elia-RTE has been labelled "model project" in this context.