Elaboration and deliberation around a territorial ecological quality index

While the urgency of climate change is certain, the ecological issue needs to be taken into account in a multidimensional, if not systemic, way. The research presented here is part of the dynamic of transition indicators at a territorial level: how can we better assess the evolution of socio-economic and ecological situations and transitions in territories (Hachaichi, Talandier, 2023) ? Although ecological issues often know no boundaries, territories (as administrative and political entities, but also as living areas) are facing up - by political will or necessity - to social-ecological and economic sustainability. Urbanized areas are also heavily affected, both in terms of "epicenter" of ecological crises, but also "remedy" (Moavenzadeh et al., 2002; Wackernagel et al., 2006; Hachaichi, 2020). With the territorialisation of public action, there is a growing need for new territorial indicators (Jany-Catrice & Marlier, 2013; Laurent, Le Cacheux, 2015; Tanguay et al. 2009). This research looked at how to define the "ecological quality" of a territory, taking seriously the importance of deliberative values in a context of ecological challenges. (Noorgardt, 2007; Spash, 2008). From this point of view, we have distanced ourselves from economic expertise (monetarized indicators), which can only convey weak sustainability. We have also distanced ourselves from survey-based legitimacy, which, although it may have heuristic virtues, is based on the problematic epistemic presupposition that the sum of individual preferences is the vector of social preference. We have opted for a deliberative consultation process, because "the principle of democratic inclusion brings significant epistemic benefits" (Cambell, 1995 ; Dewey, 2003; Frega, 2006 ; Stern, 2005). We have also done so because of the growing complexity of the issues (Nowotny et al., 2001) and the importance of ecosystem-centric accounts (Feger, Mermet, 2021). In this contribution, we wish to focus on an element of research that we can summarize as follows: what does the process do to the result? We compare an index of territorial ecological quality that we have constructed on an expert basis, based on academic work on the one hand, and on the other hand (Jany-Catrice, Delefosse, Girousse), a territorial ecological quality index built using a deliberative approach, drawing on intermediary organizations and citizens. This deliberative approach has been applied to two French territories: the Hauts-de-France, and the Rouen-Normandie Metropolis.