New-Aquitaine: Municipalities classified in mountain area — Communes (surfacing)

This dataset contains the municipalities classified in mountain areas, of the region New-Aquitaine. The classification of municipalities in mountain areas is based on the provisions of Council Regulation No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development, and in particular Article 18 thereof for mountain areas, and Council Directive 76/401/EEC of 6 April 1976 (determination of the criteria for classification in France as mountain areas). The mountain area is defined, by Article 18 of Regulation 1257/99, as being characterised by handicaps linked to altitude, slope, and/or climate, which have the effect of significantly restricting land use possibilities and generally increasing the cost of all works. This list of mountain areas is used in particular for the calculation of the DGCL’s overall operating allocation for municipalities. In France, two official and administrative boundaries of the mountains overlap. Mountain areas on the one hand (they fall under a sectoral approach dedicated primarily to agriculture by recognising and compensating for natural handicaps) and on the other hand, the massifs built to promote the self-development of mountain areas (areas immediately adjacent to them: foothills or even plains if the latter ensure the continuity of the massif). The concept of massif is a French-only approach, allowing an administrative body competent to carry out mountain policy. This notion of massif is to be distinguished from the concept of mountain.