ZABR - Graie

ZABR
Zone Atelier Bassin du Rhône Bilan et perspectives
octobre 2001 - octobre 2003 Sommaire
1 Résumé de la dernière demande de financement auprès du PEVS 8 1.1 Attendus 8 1.2 Problématiques scientifiques et méthodologie de travail 9 1.3 Budget 10 1.4 Equipes impliquées 12 2 LES PRINCIPALES AVANCEES 13 2.1 La mise en place de l'interdisciplinarité 13 2.2 La dynamique des sites ateliers 15
2.2.1 Le bassin versant dans son ensemble 15
2.2.2 L'axe Rhône-Saone 19
2.2.3 Site atelier Zones Humides Fluviales 24
2.2.4 le Site Atelier Y lyonnais 30
2.2.5 L'OTHU : Observatoire de terrain en hydrologie urbaine 34
2.2.6 Site Atelier Drôme 40 2.3 Synthèse des principaux résultats obtenus 46
2.3.1 Résultats académiques 46
2.3.2 Produits Scientifiques 46 3 La structuration et la valorisation de la recherche sur les
hydrosystèmes fluviaux 59 3.1 Déroulement du projet 59 3.2 Réponses aux demandes locales 60 3.3 Implication dans des réseaux 1 3.4 Actions de valorisation et de diffusion des connaissances 63 3.5 Mutualisation des outils 65 4 LES PERSPECTIVES DE LA ZABR 67 4.1 Une nouvelle méthodologie pour la recherche action 67 4.2 Les perspectives de recherche-actions 69
4.2.1 La dynamique des sites 69
4.2.2 La dynamique des thèmes 75
4.2.3 La dynamique des opérations transversales 79
4.2.4 Les dynamiques de réseaux 81
4.2.5 La dynamique de la ZABR 82 5 BESOINS 83
ZABR
The Rhône Basin Long Term Environmental Research
ABSTRACT In 1979, the French C.N.R.S. (National Centre for Scientific Research) and
the Ministry of Environment jointly launched an interdisciplinary research
program on environment. Part of this program dealt with French large
rivers, particularly the Rhône River which was studied by the P.I.R.E.N.-
Rhône team (Pr A.-L. Roux). This team, which produced the so-called
"Fluvial hydrosystem concept", gave a significant impetus to practices of
environmental management in watersheds. For instance, several
recommendations of the Directory scheme for Water management prepared in
1995 by the Rhône-Méditerranée et Corse Water Agency are based on these
scientific results. Also, interdisciplinary researches on hydrosystems
benefits from the more recent OTHU Program, which deals with the management
of rain flow and waste water in Lyon's district.
In 2000, the C.N.R.S. project " Environment, Life, and Society" proposed
the setting up of "workshop zones " or Long Term Ecological Research groups
dedicated to develop interdisciplinary research on anthroposystems (complex
ecological systems including biophysical components and societies
(sociological aspects)).
Located in Lyon, the Rhône Watershed Workshop Zone (Zone Atelier Bassin du
Rhône or ZABR) was officially labelled in 2001. It results from the
mobilisation of about 20 teams working in the watershed, and belonging to
multiple academic disciplines contributing in studies dealing with water
management. The ZABR aims at setting up field sites dedicated to
observation and/or experimentation. The ZABR is laying research programs,
intending to bring up fresh data to public decision-making, when dealing
with sustainable management of rivers and watersheds. I. MOTIVATIONS AND OBJECTIVES This action aims at directly answering the concerns of decision makers in
charge of water management in the Rhône watershed. Indeed, the Rhône
watershed has an extremely diversified hydrological patrimony. This
patrimony was heavily perturbated by multiple uses and harnessing mainly
devoted to energy production through large development schemes ; They were
imposed because of city growth and because of the increase in industrial
and agricultural pressure.
Most of actors in the Rhône watershed are presently decided to value the
diversity and the economic value of their hydraulic patrimony. However,
they face the extreme complexity of fluvial hydrosystems, and in particular
the problem of the integration of space and time scales. Then ecological
engineering of hydrosystems is in front of a major difficulty: the
preliminary estimation of the interest and efficiency of peculiar actions
of restoration and rehabilitation at the watershed scale. Indeed, the risk
of investing most important funding into inefficient actions does exist.
The operational target of this Workshop Zone is to provide decision makers
a methodology to better evaluate the effects of watersheds rehabilitation
applied to the functioning of hydrosystems, in terms of biodiversity
(potential effects of restoration and rehabilitation steps on
biodiversity), of sustainability (perennity of the effects of restoration
works), and of potential water uses. It is based on diachronic models of
knowledge and prevision, allowing a better evaluation of the interactions
inside the anthroposystems (links between human actions and the milieu,
also interactions between humans and environment. A practical operational
target will be to build up a scientific support to the ongoing 10 years
restoration program of the Rhône River (Water Agency) and to contribute in
the elaboration of the next program. II. THE 2001 PROJECT The purpose is to improve knowledge, dealing both with:
. The interrelationships between physico-chemical and biological
characteristics of rivers and of the implemented uses,
. The impacts of human actions on rivers, whatever the nature of these
actions may be (harnessing of the channel and of river banks, intakes,
polluted releases, changes at the watershed scales),
. The possibilities of correction and improvement that can be expected from
identified restoration measures (better management of discharges,
decrease of polluted releases, removing of training works, changes in
land occupation, etc...), This knowledge is based on two complementary sources:
. The development of experimental devices under controlled environment,
allowing the building up and the validation of scientific hypothesis on
the causal relationship mechanisms between development schemes and
management procedures on one side, and, on the other side impacts on the
milieu (habitat) and on potential uses,
. The observation of different hydrosystems, either humanised or in the
process of restoration, or prone to be used as references (field
observatory). The target is to assess the evolution of ecological factors
in process and to validate in the field the hypothesis concerning causal
mechanisms. The Rhône watershed is the base to get a better scientific knowledge. It is
also a perfect place for the application of operational methodologies. It
represents the upper integration scale when dealing with the processes at
play and for the operations that are proposed. Scientific questioning The understanding of the interplay between physical processes, ecological
functions, and uses is the key-base for an effective restoration of fluvial
corridors. Scientific questions are both concerned by the understanding of
processes and by their alteration following human actions.
The central idea of this project is to address in an interdisciplinary way
the relationships between hydro-geomorphology, aquatic communities, human
uses, and the social perception of habitats. The concerned disciplines are
numerous: climatology, hydrology, physico-chemistry of waters, ecology of
fluvial hydrosystems, hydrobiology (microbian communities, aquatic
vegetation, benthic and subterraneous invertebrates, fishes), history of
hydrosystems and human populations, sociology, etc. Due to the diversity of disciplinary fields addressed and to their
interactions, several scientific questions are developed around :
9 main topics . Impact of climate changes
. Fluxes, forms, habitats, biocenoses
. Pollution: origins, fluxes, transfers, impacts
. Water and Health
. Water Resource and future demand
. Genealogy of decision making
. Social watch along the Rhône
. Regional approach and transferability of models
. Evaluation, prospective and help to decision making Workshop sites . The Rhône watershed as a whole, with a particular concern for the
Southern area,
. The Rhône-Saone axis, including the alluvial valley, with a particular
concern for several wetlands,
. The " Lyon y " (branches of rivers featuring a " y "), with a particular
concern for Lyons' district which is a populated and strongly humanised
area, (a very urbanised area with a very large number of inhabitants)
. The watershed of the Drome River, representative of an area still poorly
affected by human actions. Methodology A collective wish does exist: the ZABR can actually be an interdisciplinary
place whose results may be useful to society, helping it to a better
development in its watershed,. Collaborations between French and foreign
partners are particularly welcomed. The operational framework of the workshop zone is:
. Pooling the obtained data, which requires a preview for the organisation
of information, for the management of raw data, and of data collected by
public offices, and for the communication of information to the public,
. The development of subst