What Lies Beneath the Scrubland: A Water Story for the People of Montpellier

The conference will focus on karst and groundwater resources in the Montpellier area, but the findings can be applied to many Mediterranean regions.

Water is a precious shared resource; we often hear that the coming century will be one of seeking out water and preserving it. Not all regions of the world are on equal footing when it comes to water abundance and quality. The Montpellier region is very fortunate because beneath its limestone scrublands lies a natural reservoir within the karst formations of Upper Jurassic limestone, which were deposited along the edge of the Alpine Ocean approximately 135 million years ago. The surface of these limestone formations, which supports our Mediterranean scrublands, collects a large amount of rainwater that seeps into the porous karst and can remain there, forming an underground aquifer where water is stored and can be extracted in large quantities either from natural springs or through drilling. The water is regularly replenished depending on rainfall levels. The most important challenge for meeting our future needs will be to preserve the quality of this water by preventing human and industrial pollution. The message for the future is therefore to preserve the integrity of our garrigue, the reservoir of the rainwater we drink.

Michel Bakalowicz holds a Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the University of Paris 6, following a doctoral thesis on karst hydrogeology in the Taurus Mountains, Turkey. He worked at CEMAGREF in the Hydrology Division. He then completed his thesis at the CNRS Underground Laboratory on the contributions of geochemistry to our understanding of karst. He was subsequently seconded to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, to study underground paleoenvironments using isotopes and U/Th radiometric dating. He was seconded to the BRGM as a scientific advisor during the creation of the Hydrogeology of Heterogeneous Media unit in Montpellier to develop research in karst hydrogeology (1995–2004). Finally, as part of cooperation with Lebanon, he was seconded to the IRD to direct the Regional Center for Water and the Environment. From 1995 to 2008, he was affiliated withthe HydroSciences Montpellier laboratory. He also served as an expert for the IAEA to coordinate and evaluate projects on karst water resources in Haiti, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, and Lebanon, and led scientific cooperation projects in China.