BRGM has been managing the inventory of quarries in France on behalf of the French government since 2006. As part of this mission, it has compiled a "Quarries and Materials" database (BD CARMA) of administrative and technical information drawn from digitised documents. This information is available for consultation online with restricted access. The "Quarries and Materials" data collected for the DREALs are managed and can be consulted via this specialised application.
16 September 2022
Quarry face of the Chassagne ornamental stone quarry in the Côte d'Or.

Quarry face of the Chassagne ornamental stone quarry in the Côte d'Or.

© BRGM - F. Michel

The need

BD CARMA is a database used to gather together, archive, update and sort administrative and technical information about quarries in France, and make this data available to authorised users. To meet current and future needs, the data contained in the database needed to be made available in summary form, notably for the production of easy-to-use visual aids that present both cartographic and statistical information.

To meet this need, BRGM decided to create département-specific atlases, based on the BD CARMA database and the declarations provided by operators through the "polluting emissions registry" database (BD REP). These communication tools will be made available in PDF-format files (one per département, on an annual basis) and will include maps, tables and statistical information.

Example of cartographic rendering for the atlases (Loire-Atlantique, 2021)

Example of cartographic rendering for the atlases (Loire-Atlantique, 2021)

© BRGM

The results

To develop these new atlases, three pilot regions (Brittany, Pays-de-la-Loire, Centre-Val-de-Loire) – for which Regional Quarry Plans had already been drawn up – were selected to develop and validate the concept, along with the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region. The aim of these atlases is to show the extraction potential of a given département, along with the location of the quarries and the origin of the materials consumed in each département.

The initial results will also be used to verify and update (if necessary) the status of the quarries (authorised or closed) with the representatives of the DREALs concerned, according to the summary information produced.

Using the results

These atlases can be used by the DREALs for the purposes of internal and external communication, but also as a data-verification tool. Ultimately, these documents will be made available to the public (with any information that could be classified as a trade secret edited out).

The partners

  • Bureau de la politique des ressources minérales non énergétiques (Non-Energy Mineral Resources Policy Office) (MTE/DGALN/DEB/EARM2)