‘Conducting a retrospective and prospective study on water resources, the White Paper

Produced by INRAE as part of the LIFE Eau&Climat project, the white paper ‘Carrying out a retrospective and prospective study on water resources’ is designed to help water managers and consultancies carry out studies to calculate past trends and future projections for water resources in their areas. The finalised version is now available.

Written in the format of a book ‘in which you are the hero’, the white paper is a guide to quantifying past and future changes in water resources (flows, groundwater levels) in their natural dimension, in a situation of catchment basins without human influence (abstractions, dams, etc.). It was designed by INRAE as part of the ‘Strengthening knowledge transfer and exchanges between researchers and managers’ action of the LIFE Eau&Climat project.

It is intended for water managers to help them define and evaluate studies, and for consultancies to help them carry them out. The reader is guided through the preparation of the study: positioning in relation to the context, definition of the territory, data collection, identification of hydrological models. The reader is then guided through the process of calculating past trends and future projections.

It should be noted that it does not explain how to reconstruct past observed flows in anthropised catchments, nor how to predict future flows (and therefore influenced flows) in these anthropised catchments.

The white paper is supported by concrete examples drawn from the prospective studies of the partners in the LIFE Eau&Climat project and by additional resources. In particular, it refers to the results and tools produced by the Explore2 project.

Il pourra être amené à évoluer et à être enrichi, notamment avec la prise en compte de la TRACC (trajectoire de réchauffement de référence pour l'adaptation au changement climatique).

=> Read the white paper : https://livreec.inrae.fr/