The first volume of a collection that will eventually cover the whole of Wallonia, the ‘Atlas de l’Entre-Vesdre-et-Meuse’ (1) was compiled under the scientific direction of Marie-Françoise Godart, doctor in botanical sciences and a junior lecturer at the ‘Institut de Gestion de l’Environnement et l’Aménagement du Territoire’ at the Free University of Brussels, and Jacques Teller, junior lecturer in town and country planning at the University of Liège. This work, which is the fruit of an inter-university collaboration (Liège, Brussels, Gembloux), deals with the entire landscape of the Entre-Vesdre-et-Meuse area and will be followed by two new volumes at the beginning of 2009, dedicated to the areas of Condroz and Hesbaye.

Landscape is a growing concern for Europeans. Besides its preservation, it is currently perceived by citizens essentially as a component of quality of life, but also as a social and economic stake, which is regularly the subject of local news when wind turbines are erected or new railway lines are built, for instance. As specified in Article 23 of the explanatory report of the European Landscape Convention adopted in Florence in 2000, which serves as an opening to the first volume of the ‘Atlas des Paysages de Wallonie’: “Landscape must become a mainstream political concern, since it plays an important role in the well-being of Europeans who are no longer prepared to tolerate the alteration of their surroundings by technical and economic developments in which they have no say. Landscape is the concern of all and lends itself to democratic treatment, particularly at local and regional level.” The Walloon Region ratified this convention in 2001 and has since initiated several research works within the framework of the Conférence permanente du développement territorial (CPDT – Permanent Conference on Territorial Development).

(1) CREMASCO V., DOGUET A., FEREMANS N., NEURAY C., PONS T., VAN DER KAA C., sous la direction scientifique de Marie-Françoise GODART et Jacques TELLER, Atlas des Paysages de Wallonie. L’Entre-Vesdre-et-Meuse, éditions de la CPDT, 2008, 263 p.