Abstract EN:

The difficulties encoutered by many terrtorial authorities in Europe when putting sustainable development policies into practice suggest that territory and sustainable development do not necessarily sit well together. However, a closer examination seems to show that they are actually inextricably intertwined. The study of the regeneration of the Alsace potassium Basin helps bring these two concepts closer together. A single activity/single identity system, typical of mining areas, progressively replaced by diversification in business and identities, has allowed us to ask : how to make a success of such a fundamental process of change ? Can the concept of sustainable development help us here ? Based on bibliographical studies, public surveys and extensive discussions, a better knowledge of the Basin (1904-2005) has allowed us to develop an alternative conception of its development and to demonstrate that it is ready to adopt a real territorial project like a sustainable development project. This is followed by a dissection of differing methods of putting sustainable development ideas into pratice and some further reflection on the suitability of the area chosen for study. Finally, we propose a sustainable development diagnosis that can be extended to any territory, using appropriately adapted indicators. This way of trying out such a diagnosis for the Basin has proven the importance of the concept of territoriality when putting in place Agenda 21 at a local level. Every project of this sort requires a coherent territorial entity (potassium Basin) even if this (Communauté de communes de Mulhouse Sud-Alsace) does not correspond directly to the area of a given political body. Whilst this particularly study has been solely of the potassium Basin, it would be especially interesting to apply our methods to analysis of other sustainable development projects, whether or not they work within coherent territories, both in France and in other countries.