How to integrate scientific models in order to switch from flood control river management to multifunctional river management?

Abstract

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

Modelling functional fish habitat connectivity in rivers: A case study for prioritizing restoration actions targeting brown trout

“…Together with the general benefits of restoring ecological continuity, stream‐specific quantitative estimates of increase in habitat accessibility obtained through this raster‐based method might provide managers and local decision makers with additional convincing arguments in favour of undertaking stream restoration. Indeed, recently used in a multi‐agent platform, connectivity estimates have contributed to overcome water use conflicts by providing a shared vision of the river (Carre et al, ).…”

Usability of Computerised Gaming Simulation for Experiential Learning

“…For instance, in [20], the participants where Hmong people from northern Thailand and they had no Usability of Computerised Gaming Simulation for Experiential Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97303 experience whatsoever of using computer screens. In another application, in Grand Morin river basin in France [25], the participants to a second phase of the project were elderly riverside residents who were not familiar with computers. Similarly, in the LittoSIM game, which involves teams of several people, each with a tablet computer, we observed that often the person most comfortable with computers will take care of the tasks that are performed on the tablet.…”

Trajectories of the Seine River Basin

“…Other experimental sites include mid-order streams (3 and 4), such as the Grand Morin River (III on Fig. 1), for which social experiments among river users have been undertaken [50,90], and the Orge River, a suburban river in the Paris region with a high population density, where many analyses of legacy and emerging contaminants have been carried out (IV in Fig. 1) [85].…”