Water Management, Stakeholders, Users (G-EAU)

The UMR Water Management, Stakeholders, and Uses brings together 90 permanent researchers and engineers and about 50 doctoral and postdoctoral students from all disciplines working together on issues related to integrated and adaptive water management. It conducts research on the trajectories of socio-hydrosystems and their regulation; it contributes to the design and evaluation of tools that facilitate the implementation of innovative public policies regarding water; and it participates in multidisciplinary training for students in the field of water. The UMR G-EAU, affiliated with I-Site MUSE, is a member of ICIREWARD, a Category 2 Center under the auspices of UNESCO focused on water in Montpellier.

At the heart of the UMR G-EAU project is an understanding of how socio-hydrosystems function, both under normal conditions and during periods of crisis or high stress (water shortages, flooding, pollution). We analyze the hydrological, technical, social, economic, and political processes within a water-related region and their consequences. We also draw on our interdisciplinary strengths to analyze the combined effects of these processes and, ultimately, to identify opportunities for governance and adaptation in complex and uncertain environments. The project includes the design and testing—in collaboration with society—of tools and mechanisms aimed at revealing how these systems function and influencing their trajectory.

Originating from teams working on irrigation systems, the UMR G-EAU has gradually broadened its focus to include integrated management. It now approaches water-related regions as complex systems by drawing on a variety of perspectives:

• A variety of uses and interests: irrigation, drinking water, recreation, energy, wastewater treatment, and flood protection
• Various types of water: surface water, groundwater, wastewater
• A Variety of Processes: Water and Pollutant Transfers, Irrigation Technologies, Economic Instruments, Public Participation, and Modes of Appropriation
• A variety of regulatory approaches: infrastructure in rivers and canals, policies on access to water and land use, and standards governing water use.
• Interdisciplinary Approach
• In all of its research, the UMR G-EAU emphasizes approaches rooted in case studies. This means a commitment to research based on field observations, supplemented by experimental approaches conducted in collaboration with users and/or managers. To build upon the knowledge generated in this way, the UMR draws on a broad network of partners and research sites around the world—in France and in countries of the Global South—that present a diversity of water-related challenges and hydro-ecological, socioeconomic, and political contexts. One-third of our staff are stationed abroad in the Maghreb, West and Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia. In France, collaboration agreements bring us closer to institutions responsible for watershed management. This field-based involvement leads to strong interactions with stakeholders.

The UMR G-EAU is also committed to disseminating its findings. It uses three approaches to achieve this:

• Testing the proposed techniques and tools with local institutions,
• The training of students in the north through the Montpellier Master’s in Water and the engineering schools affiliated with the UMR (Montpellier SupAgro and AgroParisTech), and in the south through the Master’s programs offered by our host partners,
• Supporting partner companies, particularly startups in the early stages of formation.

Affiliation:Joint Research Unit( Research , UMR)
Primary funding agencies: CIRAD– IRD – INRAE – AgroParisTech – Institut Agro – BRGM
Secondary funding agency: UM
Research Cluster:Agriculture-Environment-Biodiversity (AEB) Cluster
Doctoral Schools: EDEG: Economics and Management – GAIA: Biodiversity, Agriculture, Food, Environment, Earth, Water