Agroecological restoration of the Landion watershed - From the restoration of the river towards agricultural practices favorable to drinking water

The Armançon Watershed Joint Association (SMBVA) has been working for many years to implement ambitious projects to restore aquatic environments using nature-based solutions (NBS), aware of the benefits this brings in terms of climate change adaptation.

The restoration of the Landion and the adaptation of agricultural practices at the Chesley catchment area are fully in line with this framework and dynamic. In 2017, the SMBVA launched a large-scale regional initiative aimed at restoring the headwaters of the Landion watershed. This watercourse, which has been significantly altered by hydraulic works, is still home to a fragile population of brown trout. This initiative quickly bore fruit with the completion of an initial project in 2019, which enabled the hydromorphological restoration of a 530-meter stretch of the Landion in the center of Étourvy (Aube), as well as the restoration of ecological continuity at the En-haut mill in the same municipality. With the same aim of opening up the headwaters of the watershed and thus restoring the ecological continuity of the Landion, a weir removal operation was carried out in 2020 at the En-bas mill, also in the municipality of Étourvy.

The operation described in this article begins immediately downstream from the En-bas mill. In three years, at this head of the watershed, the SMBVA has restored 6.2 km of rivers and removed all obstacles to flow.