First part: bank stabilisation
The “bank stabilisation” action was of particular interest in being one of the few experimental actions of the VEV programme to be carried out on the actual canal infrastructure. The preliminary study entrusted to the publicly-owned establishment Office National des Forêts (ONF) identified four different sectors representing the various situations existing along the canals, taking account of the vegetal environment, the history of the treatment of the banks and of deterioration (wash caused by boats, intensive use of the towpath, damage caused by the musk-rat). Four standard treatments were then conceived by the same organisation, all based on environmental engineering techniques. After the long procedures of authorisation for the works to be carried out on this canal, a protected site, the different solutions were tested in spring 2000. The sites are Vic and Castanet on the Canal du Midi south-east of Toulouse, Fenouillet and Montech on the Garonne Lateral Canal north-west of Toulouse.
The information panels erected at each site, explaining to visitors and the general public the objectives and the experimentation methods, proved essential. They were well appreciated, and the feedback showed that the population is less passive than one might have imagined, regarding the unique heritage value of the structure. In spite of certain difficulties (some shrubs stolen, young seedlings eaten by the musk-rat), the lessons are invaluable for the design of the of bank stabilisation actions throughout the whole length of the Canal des Deux Mers, as on the other historic canals of the VEV network. VNF is already benefiting from this experience to increase where possible the use of such treatments, within the context of the 2001-2006 State-Region contract. This is a cultural revolution in progress, in favour of the quality of the canal environment.

Second part: public awareness
The “raising public awareness” action on cleanliness as such led to the definition of a programme comprising many different aspects, involving the citizen and particularly children. The programme envisaged the printing of leaflets and the installation of plastic bag dispensers to promote waste collection. However, the study revealed that the canal is seen by both users and residents as being in a relatively satisfactory condition from this point of view. Accordingly, the issue was found to be less sensitive than the preliminary study had suggested. Because of the very high cost of this action, compared to the limited impact, it was abandoned. The result is embodied by the recommendations formulated in the study report.

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The closing conference of the VEV programme attained its objectives, attracting more than 150 delegates, representing the 11 VEV partners as well as three other Terra programmes. Widespread interest in the dynamics of transnational collaboration, independent of the actual themes studied, is attested by the presence of representatives of extremely varied Terra projects. As for the VEV network, the partners expressed their desire to continue their collaboration in forms to be defined according to the Community calls for projects, but by enlarging the partnership (several other waterways expressed their desire to join) by adopting a charter for living waterways. Among the principles conveyed by the charter project:
— a programme of actions and investments on historic canals and rivers, respecting the equilibrium of the specific environments of living waterways, and departing from the traditional practices of tourism development, in the interests of regions where sustainable growth is related to waterway activities,
— creation of a label “living waterways” (VEV), guaranteeing sustainable development of historic waterways,
— joining forces when appropriate, with a view to granting this VEV label to individual waterways and to monitoring the same,
— development of new employment opportunities in the territories served by waterways,
— implementation of a programme for development of the waterways as a means of education and raising awareness of populations, children and adults, and for training the waterway staff, as a process indissociable from development of a sustainable economy.

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First part: Tourist promotion
Aware of the need to give a specific identity to the destination of “Southern France”, the 3 Regional Tourist Boards have been working with VNF since 1997 on implementation of an interregional programme of promotion of the “Rivières et canaux du Midi” (“Rivers and Canals of Southern France”). Thanks to the communication campaigns that have been carried out, the overall offer has reached a satisfactory level of coherence and legibility in a competitive market. The use of major media on the national level has been a success for the promotion of hire boats.
Also, the post-campaign surveys and customer-oriented studies carried out have highlighted the following trends:
— the occupation and period of use of hire boats have increased and the offer has expanded,
— this increase in activity has been accompanied by problems of saturation of the network, especially in the Eastern part (the Carcassonne - Béziers section of the Canal du Midi),
— the other forms of tourist use of inland waterways have not benefited from the direct impact of the communication campaigns as much as hire boats.
Considering these circumstances, and the significant impact of image, the stakeholders thus wished to continue the promotion effort, but supplementing it by local action aimed at promoting trip boats to the residents of the regions and land-based tourists during their stay.
This operation, for a total cost of 60 000 Euros, made it possible to carry out a regional press campaign and a brochure containing additional information, listing the professionals of this activity throughout the Rivers and Canals of Southern France and detailing the services they offer.
In order to target the professionals, this brochure dedicated to trip boats is sent to the main distributors and to the “prospective customers” who request information following the campaign. An analysis of the impact of this action is scheduled at the end of the 2001 season.

Second part: signage
This action, dealing with the same interregional issues as for the Web site, encountered the same difficulties in its implementation. The main objective was to materialise along the waterways, through common signage, the promotional image created and adopted in the field of tourism communication. The basic difficulty was linked to the attempt to strike the right balance between the multiplicity of local identities and homogenisation (and not standardisation) of the image of the waterway product.
In addition to the objectives of information and awareness raising, this action involved a long process of validation by all the partners.
The final validation of this Charter is to take place before the end of July 2001.
This operation proceeded according to three phases:
— Assessment of existing supply This required a methodological approach for the definition of a signage concept: spatial and tourist identification of the territory concerned, definition of identity sequences. For the whole waterway area, a total of 15 sequences were highlighted. Many actions were undertaken in the field in order to draw up a comprehensive picture of the current state of this signage.
— Thematic inventory In comparison to the guides and tourist documentation available, the client surveys, the analysis of the differences between the image of a territory as it is actually experienced and the image as perceived in advance, the Charter establishes a kind of common strand or a thematic framework, making it possible to outline an ambience for every sequence, to put forward the identifying elements that are systematically present, to locate the evocative strong points for any user (motorists, boaters, cyclists, riparians…) and for any cultural category (French, European, international…)
— Definition of graphic specifications This constitutes the body of the charter that each partner is expected to approve and respect in its future projects. Taking a practical example corresponding to a particular sequence (the Lot valley) as a starting point (to give a better appreciation of the operational feasibility of the proposals), the charter sets out the precise standards concerning graphics, design, materials, technical recommendations, shapes and variation of the lines of furniture, provision of the contents, etc. The latter (tourist information) will be entrusted to the local tourist operators at the time of the implementation of this signage.

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This project, the genesis and development of which were made more difficult by the interregional character of the action, resulted in the creation of the Web site “midifluvial.com”. The site, presented at the stage of an advanced prototype at the time of the VEV programme closing conference in October 2000, will be fully operational in September 2001.
The preliminary study concentrated on the concept of the tourist object, that is to say a set of descriptors allowing precise and unique characterisation of any type of tourist entity: a boat harbour, a hotel, a restaurant, a natural site, etc… From a technical point of view, the data base is made up of a vast catalogue of tourist objects, each one showing distinct characteristics, connected to each other in order to constitute tourist routes or a range of services available in a given environment. A second concept to be taken into account is that of extensibility and transferability of the project at the regional, national or European level. The data base constituted makes it possible to characterise all the types of elements associated with a waterway landscape, whatever the country or its local specificity.
The concept of proximity imposes easy access to the information contained in the data base by various gateways. From a given element, for example a boat harbour, it is possible to reach all the services, all the visitor attractions in a determined area around this starting point, whatever the type of activity to be found in this geographical region.
The project is divided into three phases:
— A phase of design, modelling and software development of a very large data base, designed to allow its future growth. The format “tourinfrance” (suggested by the Ministry for Tourism) was adopted, in order to guarantee compatibility with the existing bases;
— A phase of integration of the data collected from the different regional and departmental organisations, requiring adaptations given the incompatibility of the different formats;
— A phase of development of the web site itself, which is in fact only an interface. The raw data are made available and attractive to the public thanks to the graphic interface.
Updating the contents initially involves integrating the existing files after processing and, secondly, after the site has been opened to the public, by a protected extranet access available to the different local organisations in charge of tourism, so that any European wishing to stay in the area of the Canal des Deux Mers will readily find the relevant, precise and up-to-date information.
The main sections of the site accessible from the front page are:
— rivers and canals: an interactive map displays the geographical situation of a canal or a canal section, offering an overview of the landscapes. Clicking on a section or a town gives access to a presentation map of the Department concerned and the local tourist bodies as well as links to other existing sites;
— the “Prepare your stay” section offers iterative choices from a selection of waterways, giving direct access to the information contained in the database. The user is completely free to browse through the site, and can thus easily compile the specific information desired on specific points (e.g. moorings, hotels, services, itineraries, sports activities, etc.); it is also possible to select one of the 72 mooring points indexed on a second map to get detailed information corresponding to this area;
— a practical navigation guide recalls the basic rules of inland navigation for the benefit of the non-specialist public;
— a “follow the guide” section gives a list of essential guides or books on the subject, details of the main references on the internet which may be consulted to provide more detailed information on the regions concerned, and finally a list of the internet sites of the partners in the programme.

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Animation of the network cannot be assessed like the other VEV actions, in the sense that its result lies in the very existence and the operation of the network, with all the exchanges it has produced. It may be pointed out, however, that as the programme developed, use of the technical animator as mediator between partners logically decreased, in favour of direct contacts. The newsletter provided reports on the partnership’s work, with seven issues published between July 1998 and July 2000. The articles are also available on the web site vev-canals.org. The site has generated several dozen requests, which were treated as far as possible given the limited resources available to the network to date. The following list provides an overview of the interest in the web site and illustrates some subjects of concern:
— a trip boat operator on the Canal du Midi asks for information about the Anderton lift in England,
— an agent of local development in the Ebro valley in Spain seeks contacts,
— a former head of navigation on the Ebro river, in charge of organising the conference in Tortosa in September 2001, seeks contacts,
— an individual from Belgium asks for information on the river Meuse,
— the Brittany canals committee asks how it can procure the European Landscape Convention,
— a student in architecture from Paris seeks information on locks,
— a Canadian couple wishes to cruise through European waterways,
— a French schoolgirl asks for information on a city built around a canal,
— a language student seeks information sources in order to compare waterway transport in France and Germany,
— an English translator established in Paris seeks terminological information,
— an individual from Marseilles seeks information on cycling along the Canal du Midi,
— a student in town planning from Lille seeks general information on canals,
— a French net surfer finds the web site interesting and opens a link from his own site,
— a retired Belgian notary provides information on the history of the Canal de l’Espierres,
— the Brittany canals committee asks for information on the Falkirk wheel,
— a photographer from New York wishes to make a report on a commercial barge,
— a Dutch shipyard wishes to know the boat dimensions required to navigate on the Göta Canal in Sweden.

Nearly 60% of the questions come from French net surfers and 12% from North America. The other questions come from the other EU countries. It is noted that to date no request has been received from the UK or from the Republic of Ireland (is there a prejudice against a site which is not exclusively in English?).

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This operation involved a series of separate projects, which together provided the foundations of the International Centre for Historic Canals, the ambitious objective fixed at the beginning of the programme. Each action was experimental in character, based on transnationality, which delayed the actual launching because of the difficulties of communication encountered between English and French-speaking actors. Nevertheless these difficulties were gradually solved thanks to the mutual awareness and understanding that developed, but also to the tools that were introduced as the project moved along. The individual actions contributing to this project are summarised hereafter:
— constitution of a database on canal operation and maintenance (action 39); this data base is expected to expand gradually thanks to the contributions of all the partners in the form of standardised technical “fiches” the format of which was elaborated in partnership, as well as through innovating experiments,
— the creation of Internet and Extranet sites in order to make the collected data available for the network, the mode of access being either direct or by links with the partners’ own sites (actions 1C, 2A); access to the partners’ archive catalogues and some fundamental research to make these catalogues as homogeneous and transparent as possible, were shown to be essential points for following up this action,
— implementation, after a period of experimentation in early 2000 (action 1B), of a collaboration-based working space, the eRoom; a training day was organised in February 2001 in order to stimulate collaboration among partners in the future programme(s) that may follow Terra-VEV (actions 2B, C and D)
— the illumination of the dry dock at the canal maintenance yard in Toulouse, future site of animation and exhibition of the international centre open to the partners of the programme (action 1A); implementation of this action had to be postponed to autumn 2001 for technical reasons (work to be done at the same time as repairs to the roof of the building).
All in all, the VEV programme will have given VNF the opportunity of testing the various tools of knowledge and experience sharing, and to define the outline of the International Centre. VNF will thus have been at the origin of a genuine project of knowledge-sharing between operators of historic canals, in the interests of territories they serve.

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The “Canaux 98” conference took place in Toulouse on May 11-12, 1998. Approximately 150 delegates attended and discussed the future of historic canals. The conference effectively launched the Terra-VEV programme. The canals in the VEV network were located in their broadest international context, thanks to the contributions presenting the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the USA, the Rideau Canal in Canada, the old Russian canals between the Baltic and the Volga, the Finow Canal in Germany, the Irish canals, and many others. A series of workshops looked in some detail at the themes which were subsequently to be explored by the various partners throughout VEV programme:
— design criteria and management of heritage
— economic models
— commercial development
— tourist development and museographic action
— environmental and ecological aspects
— planning for inland waterways
The partnership was consolidated in a series of backstage meetings, before the inaugural meeting of the programming and monitoring committees (13/05/98).

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This action consisted in two parallel studies undertaken by different teams, each one focusing on roughly half of the course of the Canal du Midi in Languedoc-Roussillon region, followed by a synthesis carried out by a third landscape architect consultant, and by a campaign to communicate the results and recommendations to local decision-makers.
The first phase led to the production of detailed assessments and recommendations, adopting different methodologies. The differences are explained partly by the approach of the different teams of consultants, and partly by the different nature of the canal in the two sections studied (on the one hand the Lauragais and the Carcassonnais between the summit level and Argens-Minervois, and the “Mediterranean” section east of Argens-Minervois). The abundantly illustrated reports were published respectively in October and December 1999.
The synthesis stressed that the canal is at the centre of a whole range of issues. In particular, it is subject to two kinds of pressures: those related to urban development and those due to tourist activity. Measures of enhancement and preservation have been undertaken, but they have been experimental by nature, without any common framework or guidelines based on the results of the experience gained elsewhere. A consequence of this situation is that the economic development of the canal is well below its real potential. For successful spatial planning in the future, it seems essential to exchange experiences, taking inspiration from successful developments.
The landscapes surrounding the canal are primarily rural and agricultural, interrupted by the natural landscapes of the river, the former marshes, etc… The influence of the Mediterranean is omnipresent in the vegetation around houses and bordering the roads. The urban sections, although less genuine in terms of landscape, offer their own heritage value. In short, the value of the canal is not exclusively related to the structure in itself, but to the quality of the landscape as a whole, conferring its unity. This explains the relevance of the notion of the area of influence of the canal, and the need for acting on the landscape throughout this space.
The specific proposals made by the consultants for improved landscape management include:
— projects for protection of the environment and promotion of visits to the less popular sites along the canal (for example Sallèles d’Aude and Le Ségala), in order to relieve the pressure on the more prestigious sites with their very high attraction value (e.g. Fonserannes),
— attenuation of the impact of road works (for example the new bypasses, their bridges and their approaches) thanks to specific landscape treatments,
— planning measures to prevent disorderly urban development, particularly close to the Mediterranean.
The synthesis of the two landscape studies characterised the many recommendations, grouping them under four thematic titles.
1. Protection and conservation of the building and natural heritage: tools to be developed and applied for the dynamic management of sights, buildings, and micro-landscapes.
2. Promotion of quality development: preparation of an illustrated handbook of good practices.
3. Enhancement of the agricultural landscape and the activity which they embody (e.g. action on hedgerows in Lauragais, actions allowing visitors to discover local agriculture).
4. Sustainable development of tourism and recreational activities, in particular through the development of a carefully interconnected network of cycle routes connecting the canal to the nearby towns and villages, and advising the local communities on all the possible forms of development along the canal.

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