11:10 Jun 8 

The original Elles forment de grands versants ravinés (roubines noires) suggests that roubines noires is only added for a little local flavour which can be either dispensed with in English or left in French (see my original post). To speak of "ravined slopes" and "gulleys" in the same breath would be ridiculous, and "badlands", as "local flavour" is contexto-geographically incorrect.

10:35 Jun 8 

OK, I take your point. If they are talking about "roubines (which happen to be) noires" generally, wherever they might be, then OKK for "gulleys". If they are talking about a specific area which is exemplary of the phenomenon described, i.e. "les Roubines Noires" (which should probably be "les Roubines Nègres") then it's another solution.

10:18 Jun 8 

The text posted by Asker describes "marnes noires" which include as a landscape feature called "roubines noires" (i.e. series of individual gullies). Now, your argument that the "plural roubines as a whole is discussed" is stretching hard on the fact that what is discussed as a whole here is indeed "marnes noires" and yes, "marnes noires" is a "landform" as you have put it, and yes, "badlands" could be a suitable translation for "marnes noires". But roubines in plural remains what it is in English : gullies.

09:57 Jun 8 

OK, so a roubine can be a gulley or watercourse, and this is indeed the def. in Brunet's Les Mots de la Géographie : "roubine Occitan: ravine; s'étend aux canaux des marais".
Larousse Lexis, on the other hand, gives : "ROUBINE ...(mot prov.) Dialect. Dans le Midi, ENSEMBLE DE RAVINEMENTS [mes majuscules] dans les roches tendres (syn. BAD LANDS)"

Interestingly, le Dictionnaire des Sciences de la Terre by Michel & Fairbridge gives RouGines provençales as "badlands".

While a roubine can be an individual gulley or watercourse, and number of these will logically be roubines, in other contexts, where the plural roubines as a whole is discussed, not any of the invididual watercourses/gulleys, then the word corresponds to what in North America are called "badlands"; not that this translation, or indeed any translation, is appropriate here.

Someone has given a web ref. here where you can see a map that indicates "Roubines Noires" which I take to refer to an extensive landform, not a series of individual gulleys.

See map here (bottom of page) : http://aventuralpines.over-blog.com/article-6783408.html

09:16 Jun 8 

Answerers to this question should do some research on the term "roubine": it is a watercourse or a gully. The term is mostly used in Provence. It is often a narrow canal linking briny ponds to the sea (in Camargue). I am puzzled by the reference Colin Rowe has given - a document where the term "Roubine" is apparently absent. It's a wonder how a consensus can apparently become established among answerers on dillusionnary perceptions and false assumptions. A "roubine" is not a "landform" or a form of land whether "bad" or good: only a dry or wet gully in a flatland (Camargue) or on the slopes of a watershed (Alpes de Haute Provence).
A picture is worth a thousand words: key in "roubine" in Google Images and see what a roubine is.