Research
G-EAU (Water management, uses and the actors involved)
February 11 2022UMR (Joint Research Unit) AgroParisTech, Cirad, IRD, Irstea, Montpellier SupAgro
General scientific orientation
The G-EAU unit focuses on the adaptive management of water, aquatic environments and their uses. The work of the unit is interdisciplinary and aims to explore the various components of the dynamics of a sociohydrosystem and their interactions.
The ultimate goal is to understand possible changes in response to the effects of exogenous factors (e.g. climate, social or demographic change). This joint research unit also aims to understand these dynamics and to develop innovative solutions or support for public policy development.
Fields of research
The work of the G-EAU unit is organized around three research axes :
- Improving the identification of current water resources and past and predictable hydrological changes under the influence of global changes (climate and physical environment, socioeconomic transformations) and in interaction with current or planned infrastructures
- Exploring ways of improving the management of water storage and transfer infrastructures in real time
- Analysis of public action, regulation and multi-level governance
- Understanding the interaction between rules (formal and informal, rights, values, customs, etc.), management tools, in the broad sense of the term (instruments, set-ups, indicators, observatories, good practice guidelines), and the upstream and downstream stakeholders or actors involved in decision-making
- Studies of the ways in which irrigation systems are designed, for optimal adaptation to current and future production contexts
- Integrated evaluation of performance based on multiple criteria (technical, economic, social, and environmental) and multiple scales (plot, farm, perimeter, catchment) of these systems
- Analysis of the emergence, implementation and spread of innovations of a technical, organizational or institutional nature