Puéchabon

Puéchabon (French pronunciation: [pɥeʃabɔ̃]; Occitan: Puèg-Abon, [pɥɛt͡ʃ.a'bu]) is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in Southern France.

Puéchabon Puèg-Abon (Occitan)
Commune
A general view of Puéchabon
Coat of arms
Location of Puéchabon
Puéchabon Puéchabon
Coordinates: 43°42′55″N 3°37′06″E
Country	France
Region	Occitania
Department	Hérault
Arrondissement	Lodève
Canton	Gignac
Intercommunality	Vallée de l'Hérault
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Xavier Peyraud
Area 1	31.26 km2 (12.07 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	504
• Density	16/km2 (42/sq mi)
Demonym	Puéchabonais
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	34221 /34150
Elevation	54–483 m (177–1,585 ft) (avg. 110 m or 360 ft)
Website	communedepuechabon.fr
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Geography

Map

The commune borders Causse-de-la-Selle to the north, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert to the north and west, Aniane to the south, and La Boissière to the southeast.

Climate

In 2010, the climate of the commune is classified as a frank Mediterranean climate, according to a study based on a dataset covering the 1971-2000 period. In 2020, Météo-France published a typology of climates in mainland France in which the commune is exposed to a Mediterranean climate and is part of the Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon climatic region, characterized by low rainfall in summer, very good sunshine (2,600 h/year), a hot summer 21.5 °C (71 °F), very dry air in summer, dry conditions in all seasons, strong winds (with a frequency of 40 to 50% for winds > 5 m/s), and little fog.

For the 1971-2000 period, the average annual temperature was 14 °C (57 °F) with an annual atmospheric temperature of 16 °C (61 °F). The average annual total rainfall during this period was 931 mm, with 6.9 days of precipitation in January and 3.1 days in July. For the subsequent period of 1991 to 2020, the average annual temperature observed at the nearest weather station, located in the commune of Saint-André-de-Sangonis, 12 kilometres (7 mi) away as the crow flies, is 15.5 °C (60 °F), and the average annual total rainfall is 652.4 mm.

For the future, climate parameters for the commune projected for 2050, based on different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, can be consulted on a dedicated website published by Météo-France in November 2022.

Urbanism

Typology

As of January 1, 2024, Puéchabon is classified as an ‘commune rurale à habitat dispersé’ (rural commune with dispersed settlement) according to the new seven-level commune density grid established by Insee in 2022. The commune is located outside of any urban unit. Additionally, Puéchabon belongs to the Montpellier attraction area, where it is designated as a commuter town. This area, encompassing 161 communes, falls under the category of areas with 700,000 inhabitants or more (excluding Paris).

Land Use

The land use in the commune, as recorded in the European biophysical land use database, Corine Land Cover (CLC), is characterized by a high proportion of forests and semi-natural habitats, accounting 90.8 % in 2018, an approximately equivalent proportion compared to that of 1990, 91.2%. The detailed distribution in 2018 was as follows: shrub and/or herbaceous vegetation environments (67.4%), forests (20.3%), permanent crops (7%), open spaces, with little or no vegetation (3.1%), urban areas (1.1%), heterogeneous agricultural areas (1.1%). Changes in the commune’s land use and infrastructure can be observed on various cartographic representations of the area: the Cassini map (18th century), the military topographic map (1820–1866), and IGN maps or aerial photographs from 1950 to the present day.

Map of Infrastructure and Land Use in the Commune in 2018 (CLC)

Population

Changes in the number of inhabitants have been documented through population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. For communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, a full census of the population is conducted every five years, with the legal populations for the intervening years estimated through interpolation or extrapolation. For this commune, the first complete census under the new system was carried out in 2005.

In 2021, the commune had a population of 504, reflecting an increase of +5.88 since 2015 (Hérault: +7.29%, France excluding Mayotte: +1.84%).

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 647 —     1800 669 +0.48% 1806 741 +1.72% 1821 835 +0.80% 1831 901 +0.76% 1836 837 −1.46% 1841 872 +0.82% 1846 909 +0.83% 1851 893 −0.35% 1856 860 −0.75% 1861 862 +0.05% 1866 851 −0.26% 1872 792 −1.19% 1876 863 +2.17% 1881 826 −0.87% 1886 747 −1.99% 1891 647 −2.83% 1896 732 +2.50% 1901 651 −2.32% 1906 588 −2.02%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1911 532 −1.98% 1921 515 −0.32% 1926 415 −4.23% 1931 378 −1.85% 1936 371 −0.37% 1946 315 −1.62% 1954 270 −1.91% 1962 239 −1.51% 1968 200 −2.93% 1975 221 +1.44% 1982 255 +2.07% 1990 273 +0.86% 1999 346 +2.67% 2005 410 +2.87% 2006 425 +3.66% 2010 458 +1.89% 2015 476 +0.77% 2020 506 +1.23% 2021 504 −0.40%
Source: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1999, and INSEE since 2006.

See also

• Communes of the Hérault department

Notes and references