The chair in brief

The chair "Factories, cities, territories & nature: what interactions for tomorrow?" aims to use the data collected following the fire of September 26, 2019 to advance knowledge on ecological issues (soils and environments), societal issues (employees and citizens) and also to invent innovative devices for the reappropriation by nature of part of an industrial site.

The fire that affected the Lubrizol warehouses and the neighboring site, whose causes are unknown today, constitutes a major case study for researchers and students to conduct experiments and demonstrations of innovative solutions for the reclamation of the site but also reflections on the socio-economic and environmental issues of the factory in the city.

Since September 26, 2019, 39 French and foreign agencies, government bodies and laboratories have produced more than 368,000 results of analyses performed on drinking water, air, animal and human food, surface and groundwater, soil and plants. These data will be used by UniLaSalle.

In addition, the Lubrizol site now has vast spaces whose development and integration into their territorial fabric will be the subject of separate programs.

Trois piliers thématiques

Working methodology

Scientific framework

The questions addressed will question the basic sciences as much as the applied sciences. The experiments could integrate modelling approaches, simulations in the framework of miniaturized ecosystems and in real conditions on site.

Human resources

The project is based on the mobilization of existing skills within the two structures and is also the subject of a recruitment of a chairholder.

UniLaSalle will be able to mobilize, depending on the operations, the teacher-researchers :

• the AGHYLE UP 2018.C101 unit (Agroecology, hydrogeochemistry, environments and resources), which aims to develop solutions for promoting agroecological practices and preserving soil and water quality, and whose multidisciplinary wealth of skills is an asset for a systemic approach to the project
• the INTERACT UP 2018.C102 unit, for its skills in human and social sciences but also in data sciences and artificial intelligence.

Students, engineering students, students of the Masters of Science "Urban Agriculture & Green Cities" and "Agricultural & Food Data Management" of UniLaSalle will be able to be particularly involved in the various actions proposed and supervised by the faculty of the colleges HUMAN and AGROBIOSCIENCES of the establishment.

International resources

The actors of the Chair benefit from a very favourable ecosystem of academic partners and international networks, in particular the Lasallian world network.

Technology and associated skills

For the realization of this program, UniLaSalle has equipment and associated skills grouped within the AGHYLE and INTERACT research units.

The equipment of 4 platforms will be made available to the joint project, including

• An "environment" platform for the study of soil and water quality. This platform allows the measurement of physical and chemical properties (porosity, texture, organic matter, metallic/organic trace elements...).   
• An "agrobiodiversity" platform for the analysis of living communities within environments (natural or anthropized). This platform allows, among other things, to measure the genetic and functional diversity of the microbial communities present (bacteria, fungi) and the resulting biological functioning (enzymatic activities, carbon mineralization, etc...).   
• An "agrosciences" platform for the evaluation of the relationship between soil health and plant health, with consequences on the nutrition and quality of plant production.   
• A "statistical and numerical" platform for data modeling and artificial intelligence. This platform will allow, among other things, the realization of maps, multifactorial analysis of observed indicators, whether biophysical-chemical data or socio-economic data collected by field surveys.