• Level of study

    BAC +4

  • ECTS

    3 credits

  • Component

    Faculty of Science

Description

Water is at the heart of multiple and contradictory issues, visions and interests. The articulation of these different elements raises the question of integrated management (IWRM) and regulation (in particular by public policies), of the balance between collective and private values, and of decision-making processes concerning collective issues, in short, of governance. Decentralization, water and sanitation services, basin management, the European Framework Directive, financial circuits illustrate, in particular, different facets of governance.

 

Read more

Objectives

This module should enable students, whatever their background and previous specialization, to grasp the complexity of water-related issues and the multiplicity of actors, and the difficulties posed by regulation, both because of this multiplicity and because of the fluid nature of water and the interaction between scales that it generates. This entry through the stakes and actors must make students aware that, regardless of the 'water profession' - technical or more institutional - that they will choose, they will be confronted with the need to understand the games of actors and their different interests.

 

Hourly volumes* :

            CM : 24

            TD : 3

            TP:  

            Terrain:

Read more

Knowledge control

Examination continuous control

Read more

Syllabus

Introduction to Integrated Water Management and GovernanceF. Molle

This course introduces IWRM and the three collective values it promotes through a historical retrospective of the 'hydraulic mission' and the emergence of three 'contestations'. It shows the interconnectedness of users and ecosystems, the variety of externalities produced and propagated through the hydrological cycle, and the necessity and complexity of coordination or regulation. A role-playing game on water allocation in times of deficit between different types of farmers in a small irrigated system illustrates the diversity of criteria/values/mechanisms that can be considered to manage resource scarcity.

The module introduces the three archetypes of coordination (state, market, community) and the issue of governance through a critical review of the different definitions found in the literature, detailing in particular what is state-based and what is not. The case of the Mekong River Basin is used to illustrate the nature of decision-making processes and the links between governance and power distribution at different scales.

 

Water actors and financial circuits in FranceS. Richard

Based on a fictitious case inspired by real experiences, this course presents the French institutions and actors in the field of water, their actions and interactions, their skills and the financial circuits they mobilize. It aims to provide a general knowledge and understanding of the institutional complexity and the multiplicity of water actors in France.

 

Organizational methods and management principles for water and wastewater services C. Lejars

 This course focuses on the small water cycle. It presents the actors of the small water cycle and introduces the principles of management of drinking water and sanitation services. Through the history of water services in France, it emphasizes the notions of service delegation and intermunicipality. It analyzes the major developments in the organization and management of these services in France.

 

Water management tested by the WFD and decentralizationS. Ghiotti

This course is structured in two parts. I) The implementation of the Water Framework Directive of 2000 (WFD) is based on a certain number of texts and documents which ensure its "translation" and its application within the EU member countries. For France, the SDAGE, the Program of Measures and the management plan are examples of which we will analyze the content, objectives and methods of elaboration by the so-called water stakeholders. Putting the French case into perspective with other European examples will allow us to grasp the diversity of situations and the responses provided to achieve "good ecological status" of water bodies. II) The WFD and the other European directives that have appeared since (flooding, groundwater, sea, etc.) have profoundly changed water management and governance in France. Their implementation has been accompanied by the transfer of competences from the State to the local authorities, which has accelerated in France over the last ten years. This decentralization concerns infrastructures, new powers but also new obligations. Three areas are more particularly concerned, territorial policies (SAGE and river contract), the role of inter-municipalities in the management of the large water cycle and the historical regional development companies focused on irrigation issues. The emphasis will be placed more particularly on the modalities and conditions of transfer and management of these "tools", the social and spatial issues linked to them and the recomposition of the networks of actors concerned. Taking the example of the regional scale, this second part of the course will be based on the viewing of a film and the reading of short articles from the specialized press. They will allow to identify the actors, the stakes, the problems, the scales and the projects proposed to reach the quantitative and qualitative objectives, real challenges for the local territories.

 

Closure' and watershed governanceF. Molle

The joint overexploitation of surface and groundwater leads to a process of 'closure', where the flows are no longer sufficient (at least part of the year) to satisfy needs, especially environmental needs, and where the aquifers are exploited well beyond their 'safe yield'. This phenomenon is universal and therefore of great importance: in this course we will understand both the causes (for what political reasons societies systematically overexploit their resources) and their consequences. Numerous examples illustrate the difficulties of managing a system that tends towards a zero-sum game and whose users are in direct competition. It shows in particular the limits, and even the negative impacts, of conventional technical solutions such as micro-irrigation or wastewater reuse.

 

Read more