Water and South

We often approach water resources and their management through knowledge and principles established in developed countries of the temperate zone. However, the countries of the South, starting with the Mediterranean and Africa, offer us an extreme diversity of social and environmental situations that force us to significantly modify our points of view and to question the validity of certain approaches that are too far removed from the reality of the field.

Researchers working mainly in southern countries use their concrete experiences to reflect on the specificity of hydrological and geochemical processes in very dry or very wet tropical regions, the consequences of anthropization and the challenges of sustainable management of water resources.

A significant amount of time is devoted to the critical analysis of scientific articles dealing with water resources and their management in the South.

Scientific Objective:

Addressing the diversity of water resources (surface, groundwater) in non-temperate regions and their management:

1. Identify tropical/temperate hydrological differences:
   • geographical peculiarities :          

                  - large tropical river basins (Amazon, Congo, Niger, Mekong)

                   - arid and semi-arid zones

• singularities in the processes (nature, intensity; time-space) 

2. Adapt observation protocols to these unique environments 

           - fundamental questions of spatial and temporal representativeness of the observations,

            - limits of application of interpretation and modeling methods

            - necessary crossing of approaches.

3. To imagine the consequences of these singularities for the management of the resource (quantity, quality) at present and in the future.

Educational Objective:

1. To acquire new knowledge on the hydrological specificities of the Southern regions:

- original processes (phenomena unknown in temperate zones, or taking on a different intensity in tropical environments),

- some large orders of magnitude, the uncertainties.

2. Develop critical thinking about data, field observations (especially with the material difficulties of instrumentation), methods of interpretation and exploitation of data).

To critically review the approaches usually developed in temperate zones and, more generally, to step back from the limits of the approaches.

3. Integrate the human and social, environmental and technical dimensions in a holistic vision of water resources management.

Knowledge of the different components of the hydrological cycle and their quantification methods.

Strong interest in water management issues in the South.

Critical thinking.

The written analysis of a scientific article, and its oral presentation, account for half of the final grade. The other half of the mark corresponds to the evaluation of the answers to a series of questions crossing the interventions of the various researchers intervening in the module.

Until last year, all courses were delivered in the traditional face-to-face manner. Starting in 2020/21, some courses will be progressively transformed into videos that will be shown before the module begins. These videos will be assumed to be already played and will serve as a starting point for a question and answer session between the teacher and the students. This requires a greater personal investment than a gentle sleep in the back of the classroom.