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Après trois décennies de recherches archéologiques en Flandre Sableuse (Nord-Ouest de la Belgique), une des régions actuellement les plus intensivement prospectées de l’Europe du Nord-Ouest, des cartes de répartitions archéologiques détaillées ont pu être établies. Celles-ci montrent une occupation préhistorique importante dès ca 12000 cal BC, couvrant les périodes du Paléolithique Final, du Mésolithique et du Néolithique, mais aussi et surtout un patron de distribution distinct des sites tant au niveau spatial que temporel. Dans le but d’expliquer les changements observés dans la localisation des sites, un projet interdisciplinaire faisant intervenir archéologie, géographie, paléoécologie, sédimentologie et prospection géophysique a été entrepris. L’idée sous-jacente est que, outre les facteurs humains, les conditions environnementales ont pu avoir une influence sur les conditions d’occupation au cours du temps. L’objectif de cette recherche est donc d’analyser l’histoire du peuplement de cette région en termes de potentiels environnementaux. En effet, depuis la fin du dernier Pléniglaciaire, le paysage de la Flandre Sableuse a été sujet à des changements importants dus à des fluctuations climatiques abruptes, et de nombreux lacs peu profonds et de dunes de sables ont été formés, jouant certainement un rôle majeur dans la dynamique d’occupation du territoire. Lors d’une importante campagne de terrain, 15 sondages mécaniques et une tranchée ont ainsi été réalisés à 5 emplacements différents selon un transect Nord-Sud : sur une crête sableuse, au sein de dépressions lacustres fossiles et d’anciennes petites ravines incisant ces dernières, dans de larges paléochenaux. Ces profils ont été intensivement échantillonnés en vue d’analyses paléoécologiques et sédimentologiques et pour les datations OSL et 14C. Nous présentons ici les résultats polliniques obtenus pour 4 de ces séquences sédimentaires. Ils aboutissent à une vison nouvelle de l’évolution des paléopaysages locaux et régionaux en Flandre Sableuse au cours du Tardiglaciaire et du début de l’Holocène, et permettent d’évaluer en détail comment et dans quelle mesure cette évolution a pu déterminer les occupations préhistoriques de cette région.

Societies rely on a secure, responsible and affordable supply of resources to meet their basic needs, in order to live life in a safe and healthy environment. The natural resources from the subsurface, i.e. groundwater, geo-energy and raw materials, represent essential elements in this provision. Safety from catastrophic events, such as those linked to earthquakes, or continuous ones, such as subsidence, can be improved by understanding the causes, frequency or rates of processes, and their impacts. These applied goals require a correct and intimate understanding of the regional geology. While geological surveys and other organisations working on the subsurface were initially very much focussed on national supply of resources, issues such as environmental consequences have increasingly come to the forefront. Europe has now become the relevant scale when considering import or export of raw materials. This results in an increasing pressure to place regional knowledge in a cross-border or pan-European context. To support cross-border, thematic research, the European Commission issued a call for an ERA-NET to which a consortium of 33 national and 15 regional organisations responded. An ERA-NET is a project that internally organises a competitive call for projects. In 2017, GeoERA officially started. After an internal call for project proposals, 15 projects were approved that receive about 30% top-up funding under H2020. The remainder of the resources comes from different sources of funding, totalling the budget to 30.3 M€. Projects are funded under the themes Geo-Energy, Raw Materials, and Ground Water. A fourth theme, Data Infrastructure, will realise the shared ambition of all projects to jointly store and publish their data on-line as an extension of country specific databases (e.g. DOV, Gisel). The starting date of the GeoERA research projects granted funding is 1 July 2018, and the projects will run for three years. Belgian and Flemish institutes involved are: the Geological Survey of Belgium (GSB), the Bureau for Environment and Spatial Development – Flanders (VPO), the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK-CEN). Although not involved as official partner, the Geological Survey of Wallonia supports the initiative by means of data provision. The GSB is involved in seven projects, VITO, as linked third partyof VPO in two projects, VPO itself in one project, and VMM in three projects of which two will be elaborated in close cooperation with SCK-CEN, the linked third party of VMM. Together with VPO-VITO, the GSB is coordinator of GeoConnect³d, a strongly crossthematic Geo-Energy project that aims to disclose geological information for policy support and subsurface management. Other funded Geo-Energy projects in which the GSB is involved are MUSE, a project on shallow geothermal energy in European urban areas, and HIKE, on induced hazards and impacts related to the exploitation of subsurface resources throughout Europe. Under the theme Raw Materials the GSB participates in Mintell4EU, which aims to improve the European knowledge base on raw materials, as well as in FRAME, that is designed to research the critical and strategic raw materials in Europe. For groundwater the GSBeis directly involved in the HOVER project, mainly on data collection related to natural springs. VMM is also involved in HOVER, but in a work package on the distinction between anthropogenic and geogenic causes of groundwater contamination (especially how to deal with it in groundwater policy and management) with substances like arsenic. Moreover, VMM is, together with SCK-CEN, participating and leading a work package in two other Ground Water projects, namely VoGERA on investigating the vulnerability of shallow groundwater resources to deep subsurface energy-related activities, and RESOURces about harmonization of information about Europe’s groundwater resources through cross-border demonstration projects. Finally, the GIP-P project, where the GSB is work package leader, will establish a common platform for organising, disseminating and sustaining the digital results of the GeoERA projects. GeoERA is more than the occasional H2020 project. The combined efforts by the Belgian and Flemish institutes to engage in 10 different projects is a cooperative approach, with clear ambitions to demonstrate how cross-thematic research links can be set-up by different institutes, and how these can provide fruitful results for policy makers and other stakeholders. This is a notable effort in a project that is about establishing and demonstrating the added value of a European geological surveys research area, and finding how to optimally link regional, national and European efforts and interests. Acknowledgements This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731166