Chanivaz - Delta de l'Aubonne

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Mouth of the Aubonne into Lake Geneva

"Chanivaz - Delta de l'Aubonne" is the name of a zone on the north shore of Lake Geneva in the Swiss canton of Vaud , which includes a rare glacial morphological geotope and a valuable floodplain landscape . The area has been listed in the Swiss Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance (BLN; French IFP) since 1996 ; the river delta is also listed in the register of floodplain areas of national importance and the shoreline along the lake in that of amphibian spawning areas of national importance.

In 2003, the canton of Vaud classified part of the landscape on the last section of the Aubonne river before it flows into the lake as a cantonal nature reserve Embouchure de l'Aubonne , and the vineyards of Allaman and the reed area of Les Batiaux are in the cantonal inventory cantonal des monuments naturels et des sites registered.

The flat land of Chanivaz , located directly on the lake, aroused the interest of the construction industry, which is very active everywhere on Lake Geneva, in the 1970s; a building ban imposed by the Federal Council and the subsequent judicial aftermath made the area a pioneering case study of landscape protection in Switzerland .

location

Siegfried map around 1920: Detail with the delta of the Aubonne

The BLN protected area defined in the inventory includes the mouth of the Aubonne river on Lake Geneva, the floodplain forest in the area of ​​the river delta and the plain to the east of it at the hamlet of Chanivaz . It is located in the Morges district of Vaud, in the municipalities of Buchillon and Allaman. The larger geotope also extends to the wider area and a longer section on the lower reaches of the river and includes areas of Buchillon, Allaman, Aubonne and Etoy . The municipal boundaries roughly follow the river bed, which has, however, meandered somewhat over time . On the west side of the Aubonne delta, the Armary irrigation and commercial canal also flows into Lake Geneva, which, together with a canal derived from the Aubonne, provided the driving force for the former mill in the village of Allaman, Grand Moulin .

The Aubonne flows from the southern foot of the Jura Mountains to Lake Geneva and is therefore also a tributary of the Rhone . Unlike most of the other tributaries of Lake Geneva, it is not canalised in the lower reaches and can move freely in the floodplain on the flat western section of the river delta. At the exit of its deeply cut valley near Aubonne , it has heaped up an alluvial cone about three square kilometers at the edge of the lake basin with its debris since the last glacial period . Below the surface of the lake, the sediments cover another area of ​​several square kilometers.

Along the river, on the lakeshore and on the eastern edge of the delta at Grands Bois , the landscape is covered by forest, which in some areas still has the character of an alluvial forest with wetlands and shallow water zones. In the older maps , an area east of the river mouth is designated with the field name Au Marais (German: "In the swamp"). The natural shoreline on Lake Geneva consists of coarse-grained gravel and rubble on the left side of the Aubonne estuary and is overgrown by a belt of reeds on the right side . Different ecological locations have emerged in the area .

story

In the mid-BLN zone is located in a large clearing clearing the hamlet Chanivaz and east of it on Lake Geneva, the historical estate Les Fontanettes with a large park to the lake shore. An extensive archaeological site from the Roman period was discovered in this area in the 19th century . The village, whose ancient name has not been passed down, was located in the middle between the Roman cities of Lousanna and Colonia Iulia Equestris . During the Tauredunum tsunami in Lake Geneva in 563, reported by Bishops Gregory of Tours and Marius of Avenches , it was certainly flooded by the meter-high waves and possibly destroyed.

The later settlement at this point had a regional function in the Middle Ages as the center of a parish. The parish church (no longer in existence today) was first mentioned in 1228 in the Lausanne Chartular of the Bern Burger Library under the name Chanliva . Chanliva or Chanivaz is the old place name in the Franco-Provencal colloquial language used in Vaud since the Middle Ages ; etymologically, it goes back to the Franco-Provençal word châno (from Gallic cassanu ; cf. French chêne ) for oak and oak forest (it should be noted that the traditionally written final Z is not pronounced in Franco-Provençal names).

The Chanivaz farmhouse, which was rebuilt around 1900, is now the center of a large farm. The Fontanettes estate has also existed for a long time; the name means the wells or the springs in German , which probably refers to the groundwater outcrop near the lake. The maintenance of the archaeological remains and historical buildings is expressly part of the federally defined purpose of the BLN area.

Aubonne railway viaduct, postcard, around 1919 ( ETH Library picture archive )

During the time of the Ancien Régime , the area of ​​Allaman and Buchillon formed a special manor in the Vaud region of the city ​​and republic of Bern . The private domain Seigneurie d'Allaman was in the Bernese office of Morges , its administrative center was Allaman Castle northwest of Chanivaz . From the village of Buchillon, which replaced Chanivaz as a community center after the Middle Ages , a local road leads to the remote hamlet. The route used to be a section of the historic road on Lake Geneva between Geneva and Lausanne . Since the year 1431 the Fernstrasse - today as the Swiss main road 1 - no longer runs through the delta area, but a little further upstream through the valley and crosses the Aubonne near Claveleire . There used to be a customs post at the old and then also the new Aubonne bridge. The Geneva-Lausanne-Bern railway line and the A1 motorway cross the valley further north on the Aubonne railway viaduct and the Aubonne viaduct on the edge of the delta ootope. Numerous footpaths lead through the protected area. From Lausanne, a stage of the Swiss Way of St. James , which leads to Santiago de Compostela , crosses the Aubonne delta from Buchillon. Here the pilgrims can walk a little on an unpaved path and in the shade of the forest.

Around 1900 there were only a few buildings in the area of ​​the river delta: the old mill of Allaman, the farmhouse of Chanivaz and the Fontanettes country house . In the 20th century, some parcels in the area were gradually developed with roads and built over. Just off the Aubonnemündung a house was built around 1930, and on the east side of the river deltas century expanded in the 20th as part of the intensive landscape consumption , the new villas and villa district around Lake Geneva from Buchillon along the lakeshore up to the forest of Chanivaz from . The film actor Yul Brynner had lived in the villa near Chanivaz since the 1960s .

The BLN area Chanivaz - Delta de l'Aubonne has remained one of the few sections of the north-western shore of Lake Geneva that has remained largely in its natural state and is not completely divided into private properties , despite the pressure of settlement . In the 1970s there were plans to create living space for several hundred or thousand residents in the Chanivaz area with a large development. After the municipality of Buchillon had already approved the investment, the Federal Council issued a construction ban in the area in 1980. On the western side next to the Aubonne estuary, the Allaman boat harbor was built around 1980 in the middle of the wide reed area . The recreational traffic on the lake around the sports harbor affects the fauna in the protected area.

On the basis of a cantonal permit from 1978, the municipalities of Allaman, Buchillon and Etoy operate five pumping stations to secure their water supply with groundwater from the delta gravel. The groundwater body is fed from both the Aubonn Valley and Lake Geneva. For this reason, since 1980 the municipalities have established a groundwater protection zone near Chanivaz and Chaney , where the Cornaz company's gravel and cement works are located.

"Zone alluviale de l'Aubonne" nature reserve

Geology and landscape

Due to the history of Lake Geneva, the relief of the delta area has four different levels of altitude. These separate terraces are 3 m, 10 m, 20 m and around 35 m above the current lake surface of 372 m above sea level. While the lake's water level used to fluctuate due to the irregular inflow from the alpine catchment area, it has been regulated and kept at a constant level in Geneva since 1886, earlier with the weir at the La Coulouvrenière hydropower station and since 1995 by the Seujet power station .

The molasse rock of the underground is exposed in some places in the river bed of the Aubonne. According to geological observations in the wider area, the rock surface forms a former wide valley, which was created by the pre-ice age Ur-Aubonne and is now almost completely filled with moraines from the Wurm ice age Rhone glacier . With its power of erosion, the Aubonne cleared a narrow valley from this moraine terrace in the Holocene . The mighty moraine layers consist in the lower section of ground moraine and above it of layers of sand, loam and fine gravel, in which larger pieces of rock occur. The deposited rock material is partly of Alpine origin and thus came to the region with the Rhone Glacier or its meltwater rivers and, on the other hand, partly comes from the limestone massif of the Jura and was washed ashore by rivers from these mountains, perhaps in interglacial periods or during retreat phases of the Rhone Glacier. Above the moraines in the delta area lie younger layers of gravel, which were built up by the Aubonne River after the end of the last glacial period and which have a stratification that slopes down towards the lake.

The gravel was industrially exploited in several places for gravel extraction and is registered as a first priority gravel deposit in the canton of Vaud. Around 1900 gravel mining began east of Fontanettes in a gravel pit that was directly on the lake and from where the material could be loaded directly onto the cargo ships . Older maps show numerous erratic boulders on the lakeshore near Buchillon , which may have disappeared due to recent bank developments.

The terrain levels of the river delta:

  • 3 m above the lake level: from the actual estuary up to the railway viaduct.
  • 10 m above lake level: at Pècherie W of the river and at Chanivaz and Fontanettes on the east side
  • 25 m above lake level: the plateau of Grands-Bois and Buchillon
  • 35 m above lake level: Terrain terrace near Allaman , on which is Allaman Castle

The Aubonn delta thus has more gradations than other estuaries on Lake Geneva. This peculiarity is attributed to the fact that during a retreat phase of the Rhone Glacier, the Aubonne flowed into a temporary ice-edge lake , the surface of which, depending on the glacier level, was higher than that of today's Lake Geneva. The terrain terraces correspond to different altitudes of the alluvial cone on the edge of that glacial lake. Because the level of Lake Geneva is lower, the Aubonne dug the newer valley up to its mouth in the older elevations. This aspect of the landscape's history is what gives the protected area its special geological value.

In the alluvial forest on the Aubonne

Flora and fauna

The BLN area consists of numerous different biotopes and is therefore valuable for the biodiversity of flora and fauna . The forest stand in the nationally significant natural landscape is divided into a large alluvial forest, forest strips and other groups of trees on the Aubonne, on the lake shore and east of Chanivaz . In between there are swamp areas, reed areas and meadows as well as cultivated land. Old oaks still grow in the area today, and the jay , adapted to this tree genus, which gives the area its name, lives in the protected area , which with its species-typical storage through buried fruits also promotes the rejuvenation of the tree population. In addition to the oaks, willows , ash trees and alders , especially the black alder , occur. On the lakeshore there are colonies of beach lawn and the now rare European beach litter has still been identified. A pine forest spreads out on the higher, dry locations .

In the vicinity of the Chanivaz domain , gardens and parks contain stocks of cultivated plants that are cultivated in accordance with the BLN objectives. There are orchids in the meadows. In Allaman consist vineyards and orchards , representing the one hand, special biotopes, while the other part of used there pesticides could pose a hazard to the adjacent nature reserve; The same can possibly also apply to the intensive arable farming of the Chanivaz farm , where mainly potatoes and onions are grown.

In the floodplain landscape, the meadow zones and in the shallow water area on Lake Geneva, habitats with communities of numerous animal species have developed. In the Batiaux area , one of the last large reed areas on Lake Geneva, some rare breeding bird species are native and migratory birds find a resting place; In addition to many other species, the bog duck , the cormorant , the bluethroat , the nuthatch , the marsh harrier , the redshank , the common gull , the black tern , the hoopoe , the kingfisher , the water rail , the common tern and the barn swallow , the red kite , the chiffchaff were observed , the gray wagtail , the great crested grebe and the marsh tit . Biotope protection is therefore a priority for this area . Several species of passerine birds such as the nightingale can be found in the nature reserve . The middle woodpecker and the green woodpecker live in the neighboring forest along the Aubonne .

The water flow of the Aubonne is determined not only by the natural runoff regime, which is dependent on precipitation, but also by the operation of the three hydroelectric power stations Plan-Dessous , Petite Vaux and Poudrerie near Aubonne. The lake trout , which is endangered in Lake Geneva , rises into the river and uses it as a spawning area. The brown trout and bullhead and occasionally other fish species also live in the river. To the natural bluffs that digs sand martin nests. Many reptiles and amphibians live in the natural landscape, including the yellow-bellied toad on the shoreline . The pebbly La Grève bank zone of Buchillon is listed in the federal “Ordinance on the Protection of Amphibian Spawning Areas of National Importance” (Amphibian Spawning Areas Ordinance; AlgV) of June 15, 2001 as an important spawning water for amphibians. The valley of the Aubonne with its estuary is also one of the few habitats in Switzerland where the European tree frog is still widespread. The biotopes also offer a habitat for insects such as the endangered mallow pothead butterfly .

See also

literature

  • Chanivaz. In the Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Second 2: Basel-Egnach. Neuchâtel 1924, p. 539.
  • Raymond Beutler, Andreas Gerth: Switzerland's natural heritage. The landscapes and natural monuments of national importance. Bern 2015. pp. 102–103
  • D. Aubert: Les terrains quartenaires de la vallée de l'Aubonne. In: Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles , 59, 1936-1937, pp. 93-100.
  • B. Aeberhardt: Etude sur les alluvions anciennes des environs de Genève. In: Eclogae geologicae Helvetiae , 1903.
  • Henri Lagotala: Contribution à l'étude des dépôts quaternaires du bassin de Genève. Liege 1926.
  • Berthoud G. and Perret-Gentil C. 1976. Les lieux humides et les batraciens du canton de Vaud. Me ́ moires de la Societe ́ vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles 16: 1–31.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Décision de classement de l'embouchure de l'aubonne, territoire des vommunes d'Allaman et de Buchillon, zone alluvile d'importance nationale. Canton of Vaud.
  2. ↑ Inventaire cantonal des monuments naturels et des sites (IMNS). at viageo.ch, accessed on August 28, 2021.
  3. ^ National map of Switzerland.
  4. ↑ Renaturation du ruisseau de l'Armary à la Pêcherie , City of Aubonne, August 18, 2020.
  5. ↑ The mining engineer Charles Henri de Loriol (1837–1899) comes from Chanivaz.
  6. ^ Archaeological aerial photography of the Roman villa of Chanivaz: François Francillon, Denis Weidmann : Photographie aérienne et archéologie vaudoise. In: Archeology of Switzerland. Archeology suisse. Archeologia svizzera, 6, 1983, p. 13.
  7. ↑ Michel Tarpin (inter alia): Le bassin lémanique gallo-romain. In Le Rhône romain , Gallia, 56, 1999, pp. 33-44.
  8. ↑ Chanivaz , in Fichier Muret , on ortsnames.ch.
  9. ↑ IFP 1210 Chanivaz - Delta de l'Aubonne.
  10. ↑ Article Chêne in the Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande .
  11. ↑ IFP 1210 Chanivaz - Delta de l'Aubonne.
  12. ↑ Histoire de Buchillon , on buchillon.ch, accessed on August 25, 2021.
  13. ↑ Chanivaz. In the Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Second 2: Basel-Egnach. Neuchâtel 1924, p. 539.
  14. ↑ Pont sur l'Aubonne , on notrehistoire.ch, accessed on August 25, 2021.
  15. ^ Philippe Sarrasin: Presentation du pont sur l'Aubonne. In: Bulletin technique de la Suisse romande, 86, 1960, pp. 358-361.
  16. ↑ Via Jacobi in the La Côte region. Chemin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. on mycity.travel, accessed on September 3, 2021.
  17. ↑ On this: Comment mieux protéger les rives du Léman, riches et fragiles. In: 24 heures, February 22, 2021.
  18. ↑ In order to better protect the natural area of ​​Chanivaz, the Federal Council decided in 1980 to expropriate 12 plots of land near Buchillon through a construction ban. Based on the Federal Nature and Heritage Protection Act, Article 15, the Federal Supreme Court (Federal Supreme Court judgment 114 IB 321) upheld the compensation provided by the federal government for the owners of private land in Chanivaz in 1988. See also: Philippe Billet: La protection des paysages. Regards du droit, droit au regard. Approche franco-helvétique. In: pp. 254–276, here p. 269.
  19. ^ Christian Schmidt: Another 400 kilometers of near-natural banks. In: Heimatschutz. Patrimoine, 79, 1984, p. 13.
  20. ↑ Port de l'Aubonne (des batiaux) , on ports-du-leman.ch, accessed on August 25, 2021.
  21. ↑ Une campagne pour mieux protéger un littoral lémanique fragile, on lacote.ch, February 16, 2021, accessed on August 27, 2021.
  22. ↑ Carte des secteurs et zones de protection des eaux. at etoy.ch, accessed on August 26, 2021.
  23. ^ D. Aubert: Les terrains quartenaires de la vallée de l'Aubonne. In: Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 59, 1936-1937, pp. 93-100.
  24. ↑ Hydrological measuring station Rhone - Geneve, Halle de l'Ile , 500 m above the Barrage du Seujet , on hydrodaten.admin.ch.
  25. ^ D. Aubert: Les terrains quartenaires de la vallée de l'Aubonne. In: Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 59, 1936-1937, p. 94.
  26. ^ D. Aubert: Les terrains quartenaires de la vallée de l'Aubonne. In: Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 59, 1936-1937, p. 95.
  27. ↑ Leading decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court regarding a gravel works in Buchillon: Decision 1C 314/2010 of June 29, 2011.
  28. ↑ PDCar 2013. Plan directeur des carrières. Projet pour consultation (état au 1st January 2013). Département de la security et de l'environnement du Canton de Vaud. 2013, pp. 52, 169, 171.
  29. ^ D. Aubert: Les terrains quartenaires de la vallée de l'Aubonne. In: Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 59, 1936-1937, p. 98.
  30. ^ Jan Krause: Conservatrion de Littorella uniflora dans la réegion lémanique. Diploma thesis University of Geneva. Geneva 2004, p. 26.
  31. ↑ Les conseillers techniques volent au secours des producteurs de légumes , on terrenature.ch, July 28, 2016, accessed on August 28, 2021.
  32. ↑ The Chanivaz farm supports the organization Agro-sans-frontières Suisse for sustainable agricultural development aid : headquarters of the organization Agro-sans-frontières Suisse .
  33. ↑ Birdline Internet: Allaman lac, Vaud , on oiseaux.ch, accessed on August 29, 2021.
  34. ↑ cleansing of éclusées dans le canton de Vaud. Direction générale de l'environnement du Canton de Vaud. 2004, pp. 136-141.
  35. ↑ See: Sylvain Dubey, Jérôme Pellet, S. Hoehn: Les amphibiens du bassin de l'Aubonne. Distribution and analysis of habitat. In: Bulletin de la Société vaudoise des sciences naturelles, 88, 2002, pp. 41-57.
  36. ^ Jérôme Pellet: Conservation of a threatened European tree frog (Hyla arborea) metapopulation. Dissertation University of Lausanne. Lausanne 2005. pp. 30, 47.

Coordinates: 46 ° 27 '59.4 "  N , 6 ° 24' 14"  E ; CH1903:  520521  /  one hundred and forty-six thousand six hundred fifty-six