A major rail scheme is procuring habitat, fauna, flora and wetland inventories across four lots, showing how biodiversity evidence underpins transport projects.
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SNCF RESEAU has launched a procurement for extensive ecological investigations along the Bordeaux–Toulouse section of the Grand Sud-Ouest Railway Project. The work will inventory habitats, fauna, flora and wetlands, organised into four specialist lots. It matters because robust baseline ecology is increasingly integral to transport programmes, as evidenced by a string of comparable public notices across Europe.
Published in October 2025, the contract notice for Ecological Investigations for GPSO signals a structured approach: coordination of the programme and inventories covering terrestrial fauna, avifauna, and aquatic fauna, with wetlands explicitly in scope. While the notice is brief and does not set out methods or timelines, it points to a comprehensive evidence-gathering effort along a strategic rail corridor.
The buyer sets four lots that mirror specialist ecological disciplines and survey needs along linear infrastructure:
The emphasis on habitats, flora and multiple fauna groups suggests a holistic baseline to support project development. The notice does not elaborate on deliverables, but the multi-lot structure aligns with practice seen in other public contracts where survey work is sequenced and managed by theme.
Across Europe, infrastructure promoters and authorities are commissioning ecological diagnosis early, embedding the results in planning and design. In December 2022, a notice for Le Mans Métropole’s cycling network set out a full ecological diagnosis around the Chronovélo project — collecting field and bibliographic data, identifying sensitive habitats and possible wetlands, and prioritising issues (scientific prospecting services). In May 2025, a regional directorate specified environmental studies and fauna–flora inventories for infrastructure and maintenance works, explicitly linking them to avoidance, reduction and compensation measures (environmental studies for infrastructure).
This front‑loading sits alongside broader data acquisition programmes for linear schemes. In June 2023, a framework for a major metropolitan rail build bundled topographic surveys, geotechnical reconnaissance and building vulnerability assessments to feed preliminary and design studies (topographical services). And in June 2025, a highways operator sought environmental services for maintenance works, covering inventories, regulatory file preparation and external controls across several lots (environmental services for highways). Together, these notices show how ecology and other site data are being commissioned early and at scale to manage risk and compliance.
The GPSO notice places aquatic fauna and wetlands alongside terrestrial and avian surveys. This mirrors other public contracts that dig into hydrobiology and river ecology. In July 2023, a water agency launched a multi-lot programme to collect hydrobiological data — sampling, taxonomic determinations, data banking and synthesis — with a coordination lot spanning several regions, including Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie (environmental monitoring other than for construction).
Waterways management brings similar requirements. In May 2024, a navigation authority sought fauna, flora and natural habitat studies for investment and maintenance, covering terrestrial biodiversity and aquatic environments and leading to regulatory files (fauna, flora, and habitat studies). And in November 2023, a Walloon authority commissioned eco‑hydraulic studies with in‑depth inventories to support fish population restoration after pollution, moving through preliminary drafts to detailed intervention programmes (eco‑hydraulic study and surveys). The GPSO’s aquatic lot is consistent with this focus on hydrology, riverine habitats and associated species.
The Bordeaux–Toulouse corridor sits within a region where public buyers are expanding ecological baselines and monitoring. In January 2025, the city launched a framework to strengthen biodiversity management with ecological recommendations and construction‑site monitoring (biodiversity studies in Bordeaux). In July 2025, the departmental council set up a framework for ecological studies and habitat inventories across three sectors, awarding one lot per contractor (ecological studies framework agreement).
Beyond rail, energy and local projects are following suit. In October 2024, an operator in the South‑West commissioned ecological inventories and regulatory studies for floating and ground‑mounted solar schemes at several sites (ecological studies for solar projects). In August 2024, a national agency specified separate lots and monitoring protocols for avifauna, herpetofauna, habitats, floristic and entomological surveys, as well as bats — a model of detailed, taxon‑specific monitoring that underscores the value of long‑term datasets (biodiversity inventories: 5 lots). Compensation‑site monitoring is also part of the landscape: in April 2024, a public body set out multi‑species monitoring for flora, habitats, nesting birds, bats, reptiles, insects, amphibians and terrestrial mammals, including dendrometric data and roost surveys (ecological monitoring services). The GPSO inventories sit squarely within this pattern of evidence‑led planning.
The GPSO’s four-lot design echoes a broader trend to split inventories by taxonomic groups and functions. In May 2022, a national park authority divided its studies into four lots covering waters and plants; caves, bats and rock habitats; amphibians, reptiles and birds; and mammals, with outputs including inventories, conservation status and monitoring proposals (survey conduction services). In February 2024, a community launched a contract to inventory and map fauna, flora and habitats to support projects and regulatory monitoring (fauna and flora inventories).
The use of a dedicated coordination lot, as in the GPSO notice, is also familiar. For example, the July 2023 hydrobiological programme included a market‑wide coordination and assistance function alongside specialist sampling and determinations (environmental monitoring other than for construction). Elsewhere, early ecological scoping is being commissioned as a discrete step: in February 2024, a notice targeted pre‑scoping and initial biodiversity state assessments (ecological inventory contract). These structures allow buyers to match specialists to survey windows and regulatory milestones.
The GPSO notice sets out a clear framework for ecological evidence along a major rail corridor, but further detail — survey methodologies, timeframes, reporting formats and any follow‑on monitoring — is not yet public. Watch for clarifications and subsequent awards that explain how terrestrial, avian and aquatic data will be coordinated, and how wetlands and habitats are mapped. With other notices highlighting avoidance, reduction and compensation measures in infrastructure projects (environmental studies for infrastructure), the way this inventory feeds the project sequence will be the next point of interest.
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