Figure 1: Spatial context covered by French-language publications defining the term “renaturation” in the period 2004-2023
Source: Study conducted by the author, not yet published
Note: The “river” context also includes publications dealing with rivers in an urban context, while the “urban” context includes publications dealing with urban contexts in general, without targeting a specific ecosystem (rivers, brownfields, etc.). The general context refers to publications that deal with renaturation without a specific spatial context.
Alongside this evolution of the spatial context in which renaturation is discussed over the last 20 years, there has also been an evolution in the definition of the term. While in the 2000s, the term was understood more as a return or rapprochement of an ecosystem towards a pre-existing state, from the sweden phone number list second half of the 2010s onwards, a growing number of publications describe renaturation as the integration of green spaces into an urban space. Renaturation thus differs from traditional aesthetic-focused revegetation approaches in that it designs green spaces through the prism of their ecological functions and promotes synergies between these functions and existing urban systems.
Figure 2: Notions mentioned most often in French-language publications defining the term “renaturation” in the period 2004-2023, ranked by frequency of mention
This definition of renaturation remains, as we have specified, one definition among others, which is however characterized by a greater frequency compared to the other definitions mentioned. Thus, the proportion of publications describing renaturation as a return or a rapprochement of an ecosystem towards a pre-existing state has decreased over the last twenty years. This definition clearly refers to the notion of ecological restoration , a scientifically recognized term in the field of restoration ecology. Ecological restoration is defined there as the process of helping to restore an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed, the objective being to restore the integrity of native ecosystems.