Comment modéliser les déterminants locaux de préservation des espaces non-artificialisés en France ? L'apport d'une confrontation littérature-terrain

While international and national policies call for containing urban expansion to conserve agricultural and natural lands, France is still experiencing a relatively strong sprawl. So we analyze the determinants of land-use plans favoring a parsimonious allocation of land to urban development. A state of the art of theoretical models as well as quantitative and qualitative empirical studies is confronted with a qualitative field study (semi-directive interviews among municipal elected officials in South-Eastern France). This allows a typology of municipalities according to their urban development strategies. Thus, determinants such as agricultural activity?s dynamism and image, elected official?s political legitimacy, previous or surrounding municipality?s policies and existing built-up patterns are outlined while they are usually not considered in theoretical models and their empirical validation. Finally, we sketch a model of local determinants of non-built land conservation more in line with the French context.