International Network for Basin Organizations

EUROPE FRANCE	A FRENCH WATER DATA NETWORK THAT COMBINES THE NATIONAL DATA BANKS WATER AN EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR THE FINANCIAL SIMULATION OF A RIVER BASIN ORGANIZATION ADOUR-GARONNE RHONE-MEDITERRANEAN-CORSICA
The network newletter

FRANCE

A FRENCH WATER DATA NETWORK THAT COMBINES THE NATIONAL DATA BANKS

In France, as in other countries, many operators are involved in water resources management, they are either national administrations, local authorities, study and research organizations, public or private enterprises...
All of them produce water data to fulfill their own missions, they concern quantity (pluviometry, hydrometry, piezometry, withdrawals and discharges) as well as quality (natural water, distributed water, polluting effluents).
However, water management must be accomplished through an integrated approach, as for instance, in integrated river basin management. Then additional data coming from the numerous operators should be gathered, ensuring that they are homogeneous and comparable in order to establish the summary indicators that are requested by the decision-makers and the public.
The main French operators involved in the water field have decided to set up the French Water Data Network -RNDE- which now regroups the Ministry for the Environment, the six Water Agencies, the Higher Council of Fisheries, the French Institute for Environment and is operated by the International Office for Water.
RNDE is an information system which combines data banks:

-: the producers' data banks contain elementary data,
-: the river basin data banks meet local needs by collecting data from the producers' banks,
-: the thematic banks deal with data on rainfall intensity, hydrometry, groundwater and coastal water quality, fish and the hydrobiological medium,
-: the national bank relies on all the other banks for the provision of the data required at national or community level.

The creation of RNDE has enabled the publication, at a national level, of summary documents:

-: four quality maps of watercourses,
-: records of the 10-year evolution in surface water quality for 100 monitoring stations,
-: hydrometric summaries for 150 stations over a 10-year period,
-: assessment of sanitation in large cities.

Dominique Preux
In charge of RNDE
Fax : (33) 55 77 72 24

France

FRANCE

"WATER" AN EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR THE FINANCIAL SIMULATION OF A RIVER BASIN ORGANIZATION

France has a high performing institutional system for water resources management. The integrated river basin management, called "Water Agency System" has stood the test of time for 30 years.
It relies on a financial solidarity between the water users of a river basin, based on the "user-polluter-pays" principle.
The preparation of training-wise software, to simulate the financial operation of a Water Agency in a river basin would help provide answers to the following questions:

1 -: How to really set a financial solidarity into motion ?
2 -: Within which limits ?
What charges will be supported by the various users ?
3 -: For what results ?
What investment for which impact on the environment ?

The International Office for Water has developed WATER "Watershed Agency Tabulation of Economic Resources", in relation with the French Institute for Environment (IFEN), with a double objective: realism in simulation and educational clarity.
Using a logical approach, which consists in describing the river basin concerned (users, discharges, withdrawals) and defining an action programme (Agency objectives, amount of the water charges, mode of financial assistance), the trainee can observe, in real time, the impact of the decisions (made by an a fictitious River Basin Committee) from an environmental, economic and financial point of view, and this over a 15-year period.
"WATER" is now used for the practical training of agents from countries that are setting up their own river basin organizations.

Alain Bernard
International Office for Water
Fax : (33) 93 65 44 02

France

FRANCE

ADOUR-GARONNE

ASSISTANCE FOR STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING IN THE CHARENTE RIV ER BASIN
Decisions pertaining to river basin management, backed by a wide concertation between decision-makers and local users, cannot be made unless all the interested parties have all the means at their disposal for a participative management, particularly in case of a crisis.
Each Summer, the Charente Basin (10,000 km2), located in the South-West of France, is confronted with severe low-flow. Moreover, economic activities inevitably depend on the water resource to such an extent that withdrawals are equivalent to the natural flow of watercourses in numerous sectors.
Therefore, in this particular case, an optimum management of water resources is absolutely necessary.
With the help of the Adour-Garonne Water Agency, a computerized tool has been developed and implemented to provide institutional decison-makers, managers and users with the means for developing a concerted strategy by using identical data. It is a users' friendly tool for a better water management and for partially foreseeing the problems. It can be defined by three characteristics and has four functions:

* Characteristics

assistance to decision-making in real-time due to the possibilities of a station-to-station dialogue between decision-makers.

* Functions

1.: Fact-finding to become aware of and to visualize in real-time, the state of the basin's water resources (flowrates, aquifer level, filling of dam-reservoirs, withdrawals, meteorological situation),
2.: Short-term forecasting which foresees flowrate variation up to 15 days,
3.: Medium-term forecasting which assists in foreseeing the risk and the extent of water shortage,
4.: Simulation for establishing near future scenarios.

Interested in the possibilities of this tool, other river basin management organizations intend to use it shortly.

Jean Pierre Poly
Adour-Garonne Water Agency
Fax : (33) 61 36 37 28

France

FRANCE

RHONE-MEDITERRANEAN-CORSICA

THE RHONE PLAN: TO RECOVER THE "MAJESTIC RIVER"
The Rhone, which flows over 850 km from Mt. Saint-Gothard in Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea near Marseilles, is a multi-purpose river, this being the reason why it has lost part of its natural "vitality".
It has the largest mean flowrate of all French watercourses (1,800 m3/s at its mouth), thus, it is highly sollicited for hydropower (5% of the French production) and for inland navigation, both responsible for important developments.
The Rhone is also deteriorated over one part of its course by the domestic, industrial and agricultural pollutants that are discharged. In spite of this, its banks still receive thousands of swimmers, fishermen and sportsmen.

The will to act

Under the aegis of the Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Basin Committee, elected officials, users, administrations and riverside residents' associations have a common goal to preserve the Rhone, also to privilege some of its natural media.
Thus, they elaborated a research programme, the conclusions of which are being used to prepare an action programme to save the river: the Rhone Plan.

A treasure to be rediscovered

Three ambitious targets have been fixed in order to help the Rhone recover its balance:

1 -: Recover an alive and flowing river by rehabilitating the by-passed sections and the "lones" (intermittent sections) and by facilitating the return of certain migratory fish, as for example the eel, as far as Lyons and the shad, up to the junction with the Ardeche River.
2 -: Attain a high ecological quality, to enable the most noble uses such as drinking water supply and safe bathing, by reducing the discharge of all kinds of pollutants and in particular, ammonia and toxics.
3 -: Limit the risks of accidental pollution, through prevention and by installing safety devices in pollution-prone establishments, also by preventing stormwater pollution.

Several billion French francs will be devoted to this Rhone Plan, by partners including local communities, industrialists, the agricultural sector, administrations and the Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency. Aiming at year 2000, everyone hopes to redeem to the Rhone River the quality and appeal it should never have lost.

Jean-Paul Chirouze
Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency
Fax : (33) 72 39 76 59

France