The ''Zone Rouge'' (English: Red Zone) is a chain of non-contiguous areas throughout northeastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

that the French government isolated after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The land, which originally covered more than , was deemed too physically and environmentally damaged by conflict for human habitation. Rather than attempt to immediately clean up the former battlefields, the land was allowed to return to nature. Restrictions within the ''Zone Rouge'' still exist today, although the control areas have been greatly reduced. The ''Zone Rouge'' was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible". Under

French law The Law of France refers to the legal system in the French Republic, which is a civil law legal system primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with case law also playing an important role. The most influential of the French legal codes is t ...

, activities such as

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether i ...

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

, or

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

were temporarily or permanently forbidden in the ''Zone Rouge'', because of the vast amounts of human and animal remains, and millions of items of unexploded ordnance contaminating the land. Some towns and villages were never permitted to be rebuilt after the war.

Main dangers

The area is saturated with unexploded shells (including many gas shells),

grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade gene ...

, and rusty ammunition. Soils were heavily polluted by

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

, mercury,

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

, various dangerous gases, acids, and human and animal remains. The area was also littered with ammunition depots and chemical plants. Each year, several tons of unexploded shells are recovered. According to the

Sécurité Civile The (General directorate for civil defense and crisis management) is a civil defense agency of the French Government. It operates for the Ministry of the Interior and employs some 2,500 civilian and military personnel over 60 sites. Known as the ...

agency in charge, at the current rate, 300 to 700 more years will be needed to clean the area completely. Some experiments conducted in 2005–06 discovered up to 300 shells per hectare (120 per acre) in the top 15 cm (6 inches) of soil in the worst areas. Some areas where 99% of all plants still die remain off limits (for example, two small pieces of land close to

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality c ...

and

Woëvre The Woëvre () (German: ''Waberland'') is a natural region of Lorraine in northeastern France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. Along with the Côtes de Moselle, the Woëvre is one of the areas in ...

), as

constitutes up to 175,907 mg/kg of soil samples.

References

External links

* Map of the Western Front in 1918
''Déminage à Douaumont''

National Geographic: France’s Zone Rouge is a Lingering Reminder of World War I
{{Use dmy dates, date=February 2019 Battle of the Somme Ecotoxicology Environment of France Environmental disasters in Europe France geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Geography of Somme (department) World War I sites in France Soil contamination

Main dangers

See also

References

Further reading

External links