Effort to narrow the gap between the production and use of scientific knowledge for environmental decision-making is gaining traction, yet in practice, supply and demand remains largely unbalanced. A qualitative study based on empirical analysis offers a novel approach to exploring key factors, focussing on seven water models in the context of two organisations at the science-policy interface: the PIREN-Seine in France and the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities in Australia. Tentative linkages drawn from these examples identify: (1) objective and expertise; (2) knowledge and tools; and (3) support structures as main drivers influencing the production of scientific knowledge which, in turn, affect the use and utility of modelling tools. Further insight is gained by highlighting the wide spectrum of uses and utilities existing in practice, suggesting that such 'boundary organisations' facilitate interactions and exchanges that give added value to scientific knowledge. Coordinated strategies that integrate inter-, extra-, and intra-boundary activities, framed through collaborative scenario building and the use of interactive modelling platforms, may offer ways to enhance the use and utility of scientific knowledge (and its tools) to better support water resources management, policy and planning decisions, thus promoting a more cohesive relationship between science and policy.

International audienceSince 2000, the European Water Framework Directive has required managers to restore water bodies to good ecological status, including rivers that have been substantially anthropomorphized, i.e. the vast majority of rivers in France. This obligation creates situations, such as removal of mill sluice gates and strong resistance from local stakeholders that must be addressed by governmental agencies and local elected officials. Seine watershed researchers have suggested using a hydraulic model to give river managers an overall vision of structure function (including sluice gates) and the water elevation adjustments between the upstream and downstream reaches with adjustments to the structures. Scientists adapted their model with the collaboration of the local actors in charge of the river management. This simulation of the management of river structures was achieved by constructing an interactive platform and using it to simulate annual flow scenarios for the river and management objective scenarios for all types of use, both recreational and high- and low-water scenarios. Model construction and simulation reunited scientists; State services agents, elected officials but also mill owners and members of local associations. The objective of this collective use was to allow managers to appreciate the current knowledge on the effects that removing a structure would have, around a multifunctional approach to the river, to consider removal of certain structures depending on the locally expected results

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Les recompositions territoriales de l'action publique à l'aune de la proximité Le cas de la gestion des eaux de pluie en ville Catherine Carré, Eleni Chouli et José Frédéric Deroubaix En 2001, le symposium sur Les nouvelles frontières de la gestion urbaine de l'eau, organisé sous l'égide de l'UNESCO, débutait par une injonction à changer de paradigme pour répondre aux défis d'une gestion durable de la ressource en eau (Maksimovi et al., 2001). Aux scientifiques et professionnels de l'eau réunis, il était demandé d'imaginer et de mettre en oeuvre des dispositifs plus appropriés aux territoires, mieux adaptés, abordables par tous, et d'encourager l'implication des organisations de la société civile et des usagers de l'eau. La proximité, sous tous ses aspects, était ainsi investie de toutes les qualités. Les recompositions territoriales de l'action publique à l'aune de la proximité Développement durable et territoires, Dossier 7 | 2006