Historical cartographic and topo-bathymetric database on the French Rhône River (17th–20th centuries)

Abstract

Abstract. Space and time analyses of channel changes, especially within large rivers subject to high levels of human impact, are critical to address multiple questions about rivers in the Anthropocene era. The reconstruction of long-term (> 150 year) evolutionary trajectories permits an understanding of how natural and anthropogenic factors impact hydromorphological and ecological processes in rivers, helps with the design of sustainable management and restoration options, and may also help in the assessment of future changes. However, the reconstruction of channel changes can be challenging: historical data are often scattered across many archives, and the quantity and accuracy of information generally decreases as one goes back in time. This data article provides a historical database of 350 cartographic and topo-bathymetric resources on the French Rhône River (530 km in length) compiled from the 17th to mid-20th century, with a temporal focus prior to extensive river training (1860s). The data were collected in 14 national, regional, and departmental archive services. A table describes the properties of each archived data item and its associated iconographic files. Some of the historical maps are available in a georeferenced format. A GIS layer enables one-click identification of all archive data available for a given reach of the French Rhône River. This database provides substantial new material for deeper analyses of channel changes over a longer time period and at a finer time step compared with previously available data. The database has several potential applications in geomorphology, retrospective hydraulic modelling, historical ecology, and river restoration, as well as permitting comparisons with other large and multi-impacted rivers worldwide. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.922437 (Arnaud et al., 2020a). Iconographic extracts of the 350 archived items are available at http://photo.driihm.fr/index.php/category/52.

Historical cartographic and topo-bathymetric database on the French Rhône River (17th–20th century)

“…The longitudinal coverage of each of the 350 data items was positioned along the Rhône River centreline in ArcMap 10.5, according to the upstream and downstream KPs. The individual coverages were then merged into one polyline layer available in the Arnaud et al (2020a) dataset. This layer provides efficient identification, with a single click, of archive resources available for a given reach.…”

“…The Arnaud et al (2020a) dataset provides 14 scanned map series, in both raw (.JPEG or .TIFF) and georeferenced (.GeoTIFF) formats (Table 2). They are among the most spatially extensive and accurate maps in terms of the features represented.…”

“…Historical data on fish communities along the Rhône River were discussed by Carrel (2002). In addition to fish data, Léger's 1952 F. Arnaud et al: Database on the French Rhône River (17th-20th century) maps available in the Arnaud et al (2020a) dataset also provide morphological information on each river section (mean channel width, mean water depth). Combining physical data describing habitat heterogeneity (channel width, river bank length, diversity, and accessibility of floodplain channels; see Hohensinner et al 2004Hohensinner et al , 2011, for examples on the Danube River) at different periods with data on fish habitat preferences (Lamouroux et al, 1999;Rifflart et al, 2009) may be useful to achieve a better understanding of the influence of fluvial landscape transformation over the last few centuries on fish abundance and spatial patterns.…”

“…The dataset is freely available in Pangaea at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.922437 (Arnaud et al, 2020a). It contains the iconographic database (12.7 GB), the .csv table describing the properties of the 350 data items (109 KB), the .csv table listing the 281 archive box references (13 KB), and the GIS layer of the longitudinal coverage of the 350 data items (10.8 MB).…”

“…describes the properties of the 350 archived data items available in theArnaud et al (2020a) dataset. This table has 18 columns that include the following: (1) the type of data, map, cross section, long profile,table, topo-bathymetry drawn on the map; (2) the source (archive service) and reference (box number); (3) the original title (in French) and a translated English title; (4) the scale, author, and survey period; (5) the communes covered by the upstreamdownstream kilometric points (KPs; km 0 is in Lyon, dis-1944 F. Arnaud et al: Database on the French Rhône River (17th-20th century)…”