
Isabelle Matykowski, Acting Director General of the Artois-Picardie Water Agency, and Catherine Lagneau, BRGM Chair and CEO, signed a partnership agreement on 4 June 2024.
© BRGM
On 4 June 2024, following a water seminar on the theme of quantitative management, Isabelle Matykowski, Acting Director General of the Artois-Picardie Water Agency, and Catherine Lagneau, BRGM Chair and CEO, formally signed a 2024-2028 partnership agreement: the AMORSE project.
The Artois-Picardie basin is one of France's seven major river basins, covering all of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais départements, and part of the Somme, Aisne and Oise départements. Its slow-flowing rivers, canals and groundwater form a complex network that needs to be better understood and modelled with a view to sustainable resource management in the context of climate change. This is why the Agence de l'Eau and BRGM are launching the AMORSE project.
What is the AMORSE project?
AMORSE stands for Actualisation et développement de MOdèles de gestion de la Ressource en eau Souterraine du bassin Artois-Picardie destinés à l'Evaluation des volumes disponibles [updating and developing groundwater-resource management models for estimating the volume available In the Artois-Picardie basin].
BRGM and the Agence de l'Eau have decided to carry out this research and development programme to update and refine the numerical models for managing groundwater resources in the Artois-Picardy basin, so as to be able to better assess the volumes of groundwater available for all uses. This goal stems from a strong need for knowledge on the quantitative management of our water resources, on which 95% of our drinking water supply depends, as well as our ability to share this resource for the long-term development of our regions.
Why?
The Basin Committee, which brings together representatives of local authorities, the State, users and associations, recently adopted a new Master Plan for Water Development and Management (SDAGE - Schéma Directeur d'Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux), which calls for available volumes of water from each sub-basin to be determined, and for a breakdown by use to be proposed, leading where appropriate to the development of a regional project for water management (PTGE - Projet de Territoire pour la Gestion de l’Eau).
The studies are carried out using a Hydrology, Environments, Uses and Climate or HMUC methodology, one of the major aspects of which involves determining the minimum flows needed in watercourses to maintain aquatic and fish life. To do this, it must first and foremost determine the proportion of groundwater in the basin, which accounts for more than 90% of the drinking water consumed, thanks mainly to the chalk aquifer, a rock formation that can hold large quantities of water.
To this end, we need to refine our knowledge of the terrain and the resulting numerical models. The value of using geolocated hydrogeological models was apparent from the outset of the first studies, as a way of taking better account of the links between surface water and groundwater and the impact of abstractions on natural environments.
At a more local level, it is up to the managers of each master plan for water development and management (SAGE - Schéma d'Aménagement et de Gestion de l'Eau) to carry out their own study of the volumes that can be abstracted. Nevertheless, given the continuity of the chalk aquifer, the main groundwater reserve in the Artois-Picardie basin, which extends over several SAGE regions, and the water transfers via the existing interconnections and the hydrographic network, numerical modelling on the overall scale of the chalk formations in the Artois-Picardie basin is to be preferred.
BRGM currently has two major (hydrogeological) geolocation models describing the region: one for the Nord and Pas-de-Calais chalk formations, the other for the chalk formations of the Somme basin. These models were jointly developed over several years with local authorities (AMEVA, MEL), government departments and the water agency. The aim is to use them as a basis for projections at the level of each SAGE. Linking models at several scales without compromising their operability and the relevance of the results is one of the major scientific challenges of this project.
The models will be made available to the Agency in order to test, in close collaboration with the SAGEs, several scenarios for changes in water resources, incorporating water abstraction and climate projections, with a view to setting the maximum volumes that can be abstracted per sub-catchment.
The models can also be used for the periodic inventory carried out under the Water Framework Directive.
This R&D programme, with a budget of €2.215 million, is due to last four and a half years.
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