How can territorial approaches to water management be effective?

Abstract

The process of implementing approaches linked to the territorialisation of water policy (river contracts, Water Development and Management Plans, or Schémas d'Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux – SAGE) began thirty years ago. This timeframe provides sufficient historical perspective to examine the contribution of those approaches to preserving and improving the ecological state of hydrosystems, an EU imperative since 2000. As a case study, the management of the River Drôme over the period 1980-2013, at once pioneering and exemplary, facilitates an understanding of both the territorialisation process and the conditions required to ensure the implementation of an effective environmental policy at the local level. The effectiveness of approaches based on territorialisation is associated with the capacities of water managers to use territorial both, to convince, encourage or force users to change practices that damage the aquatic environment, and also to obtain from institutional and financial partners the necessary room for manoeuvre and financial resources required.