Cet article documente l’évolution de la composition des effectifs de la Légion étrangère par zone de provenance au cours de son histoire. Il montre les mécanismes qui permettraient d’expliquer les fluctuations, et présente plus en détail la configuration de la Légion étrangère en 2022, démontrant la récente globalisation de ses effectifs et la montée des pays du « Sud global » au sein du recrutement depuis 2010. Pour ce faire, nous présentons dans un premier temps les origines et les spécificités de la Légion du point de vue de son recrutement. Dans un deuxième temps, nous balayons son histoire en montrant les changements des bassins géographiques de provenance en fonction des époques. Enfin, nous nous arrêtons sur la période contemporaine en regardant quels sont les déterminants de la globalisation, en cours à l’heure actuelle, de sa composition.

Documenting and interpreting channel responses to catastrophic floods help understanding how rapid fluvial metamorphosis can propagate in a catchment under sediment cascading effects. The recent example of the October 2020 Storm Alex in SE France (∼500 mm of rain in 24 h) provides a unique opportunity to investigate major geomorphic responses along 70 km of two confined alpine valleys (Vésubie and Roya) and to link them to sediment wave initiation and propagation. GIS-based analysis of remote sensing data (high-resolution ortho-imagery and airborne LiDAR data) acquired before and after the flood allowed combining channel changes with sediment erosion and deposition along a 35-km reach of the Vésubie, including the most impacted portions of the valley. In the Roya, the analysis was restricted to 2D morphological changes reconstructed with the sequence of ortho-imagery. Archives of aerial imagery were also used to integrate the storm impact in the historical trajectory of the rivers. The reconstruction of geomorphic responses shows a quasi-continuous fluvial metamorphosis along the investigated stream networks, with dramatic active channel widening and aggradation, having no antecedent analogs during the last 70 years in both valleys. The different glacial imprints between the two valleys are considered a key factor explaining the exacerbated channel response in the Vésubie, where a braided channel emerged along a 35-km river length. Many evidences strongly support that the fuelling effect of alluvial storage is a key element of the sediment cascade at the origin of the braided channel formation. This regional case study allows us to discuss the critical role of floodplain and terrace erosion in the formation of the post-flood braided channel, and to compare the geomorphic impact of the storm with similar reported cases in the literature.

AbstractThis contribution points out that while the importance of hydrologic, geomorphic, ecological, temporal, and socio‐cultural connectivity in the functioning of hydrosystems has been acknowledged in three dimensions (longitudinal, lateral, and vertical), vertical connectivity has often been overlooked. Drawing on a multidisciplinary literature review, the authors aim to highlight the socio‐cultural connectivity of subsurface flows and aquifers as a crucial factor for socio‐hydrosystem understanding and management. The piece builds on emergent literature which underscores how groundwater, shallow groundwater, and the hyporheic zone are coproduced by nature and society through time. Furthermore, the review explores how verticality has become an important heuristic dimension at the intersection of the environmental and social sciences, and there has been a particular focus on the hyporheic zone to look at how notions of interstitiality and (in)visibility can be better integrated with socio‐hydrosystem science and management. Finally, the paper calls for further research to integrate the vertical dimension of hydrosystems into more comprehensive socio‐hydrological frameworks, which remain, at times, empirically and theoretically weak on questions of social power, even if they do incorporate aspects of political systems. Especially as societies' relationships to groundwater may be at the heart of climate change adaptation strategies, greater consideration of the social connectivity to subflows is a necessary direction for sustainable water resource management and scholarship.This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change

Se estudia la penúltima curva de la cuesta que comunica el litoral de Paposo con la meseta interior del desierto de Atacama. Históricamente, se examinó el trazado de la curva desde su creación en 1870, mostrando cómo se mantiene mientras los caminos cambian, al ritmo de los auges y las depresiones de mineras. Respecto de las materialidades, se modelizaron, dataron e identificaron distintos monumentos mortuorios (o “animitas”) que pueblan la cuesta de Paposo, revelando las materialidades y prácticas cotidianas que animan la curva. Este registro permitió observar un incremento exponencial de los accidentes tras el asfaltado de la ruta en 2010. Así, desde el punto de vista jurídico, periodístico y administrativo, a través de los diversos accidentes, la curva adopta una agencia propia. La cobertura mediática de la “tragedia de Tur bus” en 2019 muestra las tensiones de esta infraestructura vial, sujeta a negociaciones permanentes entre fuerzas presupuestarias, políticas, sociales y mecánicas que le dan forma. El estudio de esta curva de Paposo permite entonces complejizar la relación entre curva y camino, mostrando la agencia propia de la curva: por eso las curvas tienen nombre y los caminos no.

AbstractThis article studies social meanings and practices emerging from two abandoned themed spaces in China: disused theme parks and mega‐event sites. Theme parks first appeared in the late 1980s–early 1990s, in the emerging leisure economy and society. In the 1990s–early 2000s, mega‐event urbanism became a driver of China's urban development and a strategy of national and international legitimacy. Since their abandonment and disuse by official owners, themed spaces have become ruinscapes where workers and visitors produce agency through rubble and ruination. These spaces constitute sites of vernacular occupation through farming, urban exploration, or wedding photography. Abandoned mega‐event sites create alternative spectacles of dereliction forming a critique of the original spectacle. Based on urban exploration as an ethnographic method and on fieldwork in Chinese abandoned themed spaces between 2015 and 2019, this article analyses the spatial and social dimensions of abandoned themed spaces in their afterlives as ruins and rubble.

On 5–6 July 2017, an unstable atmospheric condition caused an unusual concentration of rainfall above the Northern part of Kyushu Island, triggering a set of hydro-meteorological hazards. Within the affected area, the mountainous subwatershed of the Akatani River was significantly impacted by numerous landslides combined with debris flow and floods. National and local agencies deployed a plan of reconstruction to restore the floodplain and protect inhabitants. Regarding the hydrosystem in the Akatani watershed, this reconstruction project mainly focuses on the restoration of damaged protection systems and the construction of new infrastructures. Thus, this paper aims to explain the restoration plan of the Akatani River in terms of the strategic Japanese River System Sabo and then as a model of a national-scale spatial plan. It draws on (i) a literature review based on the historical evolution of Japanese protection systems and the River Sabo System; (ii) field surveys in 2019, 2022 and 2023, in conjunction with (iii) interviews with local, regional, and national officials; and (iv) a Geographical Information System analysis of previously and newly built protection systems through aerial photograph interpretation and geospatial data. Sabo works implemented in the Akatani watershed illustrate the engineering vision of Japanese river management. They also constitute a comprehensive system and include a downstream–upstream logic which echoes that of the River System Sabo. In addition, the disaster of July 2017 and the government’s response emphasize the continuous adaptation and improvement of the Japanese disaster management system, which mitigates severe disasters.