Flavie Cernesson

Environmental research and management organizations are mutually dependent when it comes to produce and use knowledge in favor of responsible action in an increasingly uncertain world. Still, science and practice interfacing remains a challenge when it comes to implementing and sustaining a collaborative process. In this paper, we develop a descriptive framework to study the coevolution of scientific and planning activities embedded in a territorial system. Scientists and managers dynamically interact through institutional arrangements, operationalization of knowledge and information and communication tools. We propose an approach to systematically document transdisciplinary pathways and characterize the bounding process between organizations on a typical case-study, the coastal Thau territoire (Mediterranean Sea, France). By tracing, illustrating and analyzing coupled trajectories of environmental sciences and planning for the last decades, the Systemic Timeline Multistep methodology tackles cross-fertilization mechanisms. The relational analysis draws on the elaboration of a synchronic timeline to question co-evolution and grasp causal mechanisms of research projects interactions with management pathways. Its application on the Thau territoire shows that scientific activities and public actions shaped each other in a continuous process of interaction. It also gives insights into the contributive roles of long-term place-based research and intermediate organizations for the emergence of new sociotechnical arrangements.

Among the various parameters monitored in river monitoring networks, bioindicators provide very informative data. Analysing time variations in bioindicator data is tricky for water managers because the data sets are often short, irregular, and non-normally distributed. It is then a challenging methodological issue for scientists, as it is in Saône basin (30 000 km², France) where, between 1998 and 2010, among 812 IBGN (French macroinvertebrate bioindicator) monitoring stations, only 71 time series have got more than 10 data values and were studied here. Combining various analytical tools (three parametric and non-parametric statistical tests plus a graphical analysis), 45 IBGN time series were classified as stationary and 26 as non-stationary (only one of which showing a degradation). Series from sampling stations located within the same hydroecoregion showed similar trends, while river size classes seemed to be non-significant to explain temporal trends. So, from a methodological point of view, combining statistical tests and graphical analysis is a relevant option when striving to improve trend detection. Moreover, it was possible to propose a way to summarise series in order to analyse links between ecological river quality indicators and land use stressors.

Economic development based on industrialization, intensive agriculture expansion and population growth places greater pressure on water resources through increased water abstraction and water quality degradation [40], River pollution is now a visible issue, with emblematic ecological disasters following industrial accidents such as the pollution of the Rhine river in 1986 [31]. River water quality is a pivotal public health and environmental issue that has prompted governments to plan initiatives for preserving or restoring aquatic ecosystems and water resources [56], Water managers require operational tools to help interpret the complex range of information available on river water quality functioning. Tools based on statistical approaches often fail to resolve some tasks due to the sparse nature of the data. Here we describe HydroQual, a tool to facilitate visual analysis of river water quality. This tool combines spatiotemporal data mining and visualization techniques to perform tasks defined by water experts. We illustrate the approach with a case study that illustrates how the tool helps experts analyze water quality. We also perform a qualitative evaluation with these experts.

International audienceRiver functioning is closely influenced by land uses, along the stream itself and throughout the catchment. Land uses can be seen as both the expression of the natural environment and the result of increasing human activities. Land uses generate various pressures that affect river water quality at different scales of time and space. The assessment of multi-scale impacts of land use on river water quality is a major issue for scientists and for water managers who have to reach ambitious and rigorous legislative objectives. The ‘driving forces, pressures, state, impact, responses’ (DPSIR) conceptual framework is promoted by the European Environmental Agency for this purpose. A rigorous methodology, following a decision cycle-based approach, has been settled to help the implementation of the DPSIR on an environmental issue and its test on a field site. We develop a system of indicators based on the literature review and in accordance with water managers. The selected indicators are able to characterize the spatial and temporal evolution of water quality, land uses and their interactions. Pressure indicators are built according to the nature of the land use, the distance to rivers and the location in the watershed, at three spatial scales. We use two land-uses databases, the European Corine Land Cover database for macro-scale indicators and a high-resolution map for meso-scale and micro-scale indicators. Water quality status is characterized by a bioindicator based on population of invertebrates. The methodology is tested on the Ognon basin, which is a sub-catchment of Saône River (France). Results show that it is easy to implement the driving forces–pressures–state–impacts–responses for land use and river ecosystems framework on a medium-size catchment. But some limitations must be underlined: (1) the land-use data suffer from a lack of precision in their topological description and in the definition of the land-use nomenclature; (2) there was not enough bioindicators data to analyse, both the spatial and temporal variability of the bioindicators on the whole data set, but their spatial variability could be easily studied for a given year and (3) despite the difficulty to synthesize responses in a simple and unique indicator, the available data help to target areas for implementing actions. Lastly, this study leads us to work in close cooperation with water stakeholders, to share a common conceptual framework and to support their decision-making

Premières lignes Les relations entre eau et agriculture mettent en œuvre une diversité de compétences qui nécessitent un apprentissage dès les bancs de l’école. Cet acquis initial sera enrichi par les expériences de terrain qui feront elles-mêmes naître de nouveaux besoins de formation. Ces besoins peuvent être de l’ordre de l’expertise à affiner sur un sujet particulier, ou de l’ordre de compétences d’animation d’équipes...