Abstract
Known to have been the scene of one of the greatest battles of history, the battlefield of Verdun (France) is now a vast forest area of 10,000 ha. Created in the aftermath of the World War One, the forest of Verdun is the result of a long process led by the state since the 1920s. Formerly used to reconstitute damaged land, the forest has many functions today, including that of a place of memory, which draw nearly 250,000 visitors each year. The forest of Verdun also constitutes a high environmental value site, featuring a large mosaic of environments and a remarkable range of flora and fauna. Thanks to a LiDAR mission conducted in 2013 within the “Forêt d’exception®” project, nearly 115 km2 of woodland were surveyed, allowing the National Forests Office (ONF) to reconstruct 3-D topography of the battlefield and map hundreds of kilometers of trenches and thousands of shelters still visible despite the century that had passed since the war. The revegetated forest land cover has helped to maintain the underlying scars on the landscape. After outlining the major phases of restoration of the Verdun battlefield, this chapter explores the links between the geomorphological traces left by WWI and present-day biodiversity in the forest of Verdun.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Amat, J. P. (2015). Les forêts de la Grande Guerre: histoire, mémoire, patrimoine. Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne.
Amat, J. P., Filippucci, P., & Savouret, E. (2015). ‘The cemetery of France’: Reconstruction and memorialisation on the battlefield of Verdun (France). In M. L. Sørensen & D. Viejo-Rose (Eds.), War and cultural heritage (pp. 46–68). New York: Biographies of place. Cambridge University Press.
Bagnold, R. A. (1990). Sand, wind, and war: memoirs of a desert explorer. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Bailey, J. B. A. (2004). Field artillery and firepower. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
Bausinger, T., & Preuß, J. (2005). Environmental remnants of the First World War: Soil contamination of a burning ground for arsenical ammunition. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 74, 1045–1052. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-005-0686-z.
Bausinger, T., Bonnaire, E., & Preuß, J. (2007). Exposure assessment of a burning ground for chemical ammunition on the Great War battlefields of Verdun. Science of the Total Environment, 382, 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.04.029.
Bernède, A. (2002). Verdun 1916: le point de vue français. Le Mans: Éditions Cénomane.
Brandt, S. (1994). Le voyage aux champs de bataille. Vingtième Siècle, revue d’histoire, 41, 18–22. https://doi.org/10.3406/xxs.1994.3262.
Brauer, J. (2009). War and nature: The environmental consequences of war in a globalized world. Lanham: AltaMira Press.
Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z., Weishampel, J. F., et al. (2011). Airborne LiDAR, archaeology, and the ancient Maya landscape at Caracol, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 387–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.018.
Closmann, C. E. (Ed.). (2009). War and the environment. College Station: Military destruction in the modern Age. Texas A&M University Press.
Clout, H. D. (1993). The revival of rural Lorraine after the Great War. Geografiska Annaler, 75B(2), 73–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/490701.
Cowley, R. (2004). The unreal city: the trenches of World War I. In J. M. Morris (Ed.), Readings in American military history (pp. 187–198). Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
De Matos Machado, R., Amat, J. P., Arnaud-Fassetta, G., & Bétard, F. (2016). Potentialités de l’outil LiDAR pour cartographier les vestiges de la Grande Guerre en milieu intra-forestier (bois des Caures, forêt domaniale de Verdun, Meuse). EchoGéo 38 [online]. https://doi.org/10.4000/echogeo.14791.
De Matos Machado, R., Toumazet, J. P., Bergès, J. C., Amat, J. P., Arnaud-Fassetta, G., Bétard, F., Bilodeau, C., Hupy, J. P., & Jacquemot, S. (2019). War landform mapping and classification on the Verdun battlefield (France) using airborne LiDAR and multivariate analysis. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 44(7), 1430–1448. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4586.
Georges-Leroy, M., Bock, J., Dambrine, E., & Dupouey, J. L. (2011). Apport du lidar à la connaissance de l’histoire de l’occupation du sol en forêt de Haye. ArchéoSciences, 35, 117–129. https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.3015.
Gudmundsson, B. I. (1993). On artillery. Westport: Praeger.
Hogg, I. V. (1985). The illustrated history of ammunition. Secaucus: Chartwell Books.
Hogg, I. V. (1987). The illustrated encyclopedia of artillery. Secaucus: Chartwell Books.
Holstein, C. (2002). Fort Douaumont: Verdun. Barnsley: Pen & Sword.
Horne, A. (1993). The price of glory. London: Penguin.
Hubé, D. (2016). Sur les traces d’un secret enfoui: enquête sur l’héritage toxique de la Grande Guerre. Paris: Michalon.
Hupy, J. P. (2005). Assessing landscape disturbance and recovery across a WWI battlefield: Verdun, France. Dissertation: Michigan State University.
Hupy, J. P. (2006). The long-term effects of explosive munitions on the WWI battlefield surface of Verdun, France. Scottish Geographical Journal, 122(3), 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/00369220618737264.
Hupy, J. P. (2011). Khe Sanh, Vietnam: Examining the long-term impacts of warfare on the physical landscape. In E. Palka & F. Galgano (Eds.), Modern military geography (pp. 312–326). New York: Routledge.
Hupy, J. P., & Schaetzl, R. J. (2008). Soil development on the WWI battlefield of Verdun, France. Geoderma, 145(1), 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2008.01.024.
Ilyès, Z. (2006). Military activities: Warfare and defense. In J. Szabo, L. David, & D. Loczy (Eds.), Anthropogenic geomorphology: A guide to man-made landforms (pp. 217–231). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3058-0.
Jacquemot, S., & Legendre, J. P. (Eds.). (2011). Vestiges de guerres en Lorraine: le patrimoine des conflits mondiaux. Metz: Éditions Serpenoise.
Joly, H. (1911). Géographie physique de la Lorraine et de ses enveloppes. Nancy: Albert Barbier.
Joly, D., Brossard, T., Cardot, H., et al. (2010). Les types de climats en France, une construction spatiale. Cybergéo: European Journal of Geography, Cartographie, Imagerie, SIG. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.23155.
Jünger, E. (1961). In Stahlgewittern. 2. Bände. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
Keegan, J. (1993). A history of warfare. New York: Vintage.
Keegan, J. (1998). The First World War. New York: Vintage.
Košir, U., Mlekuž, D., & Črešnar, M. (2015). The use of modern technologies for documenting and interpreting conflict landscapes. Case study of the Bovec Area (Posočje Region, Slovenia). In A. Jankovič Potočnik, M. Zupančič, & A. Marn (Eds.), Handbook of typical historic technologies of fortress constructions (pp. 62–68). Ljubljana: Saving of European cultural heritage fortified monuments in Central Europe. Zavod za varstvo kulturne dediščine Slovenije.
Malte-Brun, V. A. (1845). Précis de la géographie universelle. Paris: Imprimerie de Bourgogne et Martinez.
Martin, W. (2001). Verdun 1916: ‘They shall not pass’. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
Masson-Loodts, I. (2014). Paysages en batailles. Les séquelles environnementales de la Grande Guerre. Brussels: Éditions Nevicata.
Meerschman, E., Cockx, L., Monirul Islam, M., et al. (2011). Geostatistical assessment of the impact of World War I on the spatial occurrence of soil heavy metals. Ambio, 40, 417–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0104-6.
Michelin travel guide. (1919). The Battle of Verdun 1914–1918. Clermont-Ferrand: Michelin & Cie.
Millarakis, P., & Wagner, I. (1999). Étude de la végétation de la forêt domaniale de Verdun. Verdun: Office National des Forêts (ONF).
Office National des Forêts. (2005). Forêt domaniale de Verdun. Révision d’aménagement forestier 2006–2020. Verdun: Office National des Forêts (ONF).
Opitz, R. S., & Cowley, D. C. (Eds.). (2013). Interpreting archaeological topography: Airborne laser scanning. 3D data and ground observation. Oxford: Oxbow books.
Ousby, I. (2002). The road to Verdun: World War I’s most momentous battle and the folly of nationalism. New York: Doubleday.
Parent, G.H. (2004). Trois études sur la zone rouge de Verdun, une zone totalement sinistrée. I. L’herpétofaune. II. La diversité floristique. III. Les sites d’intérêt botanique et zoologique à protéger prioritairement. Ferrantia, Travaux scientifiques du Musée national d’histoire naturelle de Luxembourg. https://ps.mnhn.lu/ferrantia/publications/Ferrantia38.pdf.
Prestidge, O. (2013). Forêt de guerre: Natural remembrances of the Great War. Exchanges: The Warwick Research Journal, 1(1), 16–34.
Rey, F. (2003). Influence of vegetation distribution on sediment yield in forested marly gullies. Catena, 50, 549–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0341-8162(02)00121-2.
Rose, E. P. F., & Nathanail, C. P. (Eds.). (2000). Geology and warfare: Examples of the influence of terrain and geologists on military operations. Bath: Geological Society.
Schnitzler, B., & Landolt, M. (Eds.). (2013). À l’est, du nouveau ! Archéologie de la Grande Guerre en Alsace et en Lorraine. Strasbourg: Éditions des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg.
Service Historique de l’État Major de l’armée. (n.d.). Journal des marches et opérations du 56 ème bataillon de chasseurs à pied pendant la campagne du 2 août 1914 au 6 juillet 1916. Paris: État Major de l’Armée (EMA), Imprimerie-Librairie Universelle Laurent Fournier.
Souvent, P., & Pirc, S. (2001). Pollution caused by metallic fragments introduced into soils because of World War I activities. Environmental Geology, 40(3), 317–323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s002540000156.
Tillon, L., Raynaud, J.-C., Le Roux, M., & Darnis, T. (2017). Programme « Forêt d’exception » : inventaire des chiroptères, forêts domaniales de Verdun et de Morthomme (55). Paris: ONF Réseau Mammifères.
Van Meirvenne, M., Meklit, T., Verstraete, S., et al. (2008). Could shelling in the First World War have increased copper concentrations in the soil around Ypres? European Journal of Soil Science, 59, 372–379. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2389.2007.01014.x.
Webster, D. (1994). The soldiers moved on. The war moved on. The bombs stayed. Smithsonian, 24(11), 26–37.
Westing, A. H. (1972). The cratering of Indochina. Scientific American, 226(5), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0572-20.
Westing, A. H. (1980). Warfare in a fragile world: Military impact on the human environment. London: Taylor & Francis.
Winters, H. A., Galloway, G. E., Jr., Reynolds, W. J., & Rhyne, D. W. (1998). Battling the elements: Weather and terrain in the conduct of war. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wulder, M. A., White, J. C., Nelson, R. F., et al. (2012). Lidar sampling for large-area forest characterization: A review. Remote Sensing of Environment, 121, 196–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.02.001
Ziegler, A. D., & Giambelluca, T. W. (1998). Influence of revegetation efforts on hydrologic response and erosion, Kaho‘Olawe Island, Hawai‘i. Land Degradation & Development, 9, 189–206. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-145X(199805/06)9:3<189::AID-LDR272>3.0.CO;2-R.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Stéphanie Jacquemot of the DRAC Grand Est – Regional Archaeology Department, Gersende Gérard, Gérald Colin, René-Marc Pineau, and Juliette Foltier of the National Forests Office of Verdun, for LiDAR data of the Verdun forest. We also thank Gilles Arnaud-Fassetta and François Bétard – University Paris-Diderot, for their useful and constructive remarks which helped to improve the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
de Matos Machado, R., Hupy, J.P. (2019). The Conflict Landscape of Verdun, France: Conserving Cultural and Natural Heritage After WWI. In: Lookingbill, T., Smallwood, P. (eds) Collateral Values. Landscape Series, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18991-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18991-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18990-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18991-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)