Geological map of Bourgogne Franche-Comté.
© BRGM
The BRGM Bourgogne Franche-Comté division is based in Dijon. It has a staff of six administrative and scientific personnel (hydrogeologists, a natural hazard engineer, etc.).
To find out more
From Switzerland to Paris
With a surface area of 47,800 km2, equivalent to that of Switzerland, and 2.8 million inhabitants, the 4th largest administrative Region in France is the result of the merger of Bourgogne and Franche-Comté, two territories with historical and economic links. With industry accounting for 17% of its jobs, it is the most industrialised region in France. It also has a dynamic agricultural sector (with cereals, livestock and vineyards, etc.) made up of outstanding agri-food segments with high added value.
Bourgogne Franche-Comté stretches from the Swiss Jura to the plains of Ile-de-France and from the Ballon d'Alsace to the Morvan massif. It also includes the Rhine-Rhône axis, a vital urban and economic backbone and a hub of road, rail and river communication in the heart of Europe.
The region's economic and spatial planning objectives are set out in two master plans: the "Regional Master Plan for Economic Development, Innovation and Internationalisation" (SRDEII) and a "Regional Master Plan for Spatial Planning, Sustainable Development and Territorial Equality" (SRADDET), to which BRGM contributes its expertise, in particular for the management of water resources that have been affected by agricultural and industrial activities, and management of the natural hazards due to the region's hilly topography.
Public and private partners
BRGM has experience of partnerships for projects that support public and private research policies for responding to the needs of industry, and of training at all levels of decision-making and spatial planning in the region: DREAL, Water Agencies (Seine-Normandy, Loire-Brittany, Rhône Méditerranée Corse), Regional Council, ADEME, Departmental Councils, ARS, DDTs, Public Development Establishments, Institute of Spatial and Town Planning, Communities of Communes, Trade Unions, etc.
BRGM also works with private companies of all sizes to develop methodologies and in Research, Development and Innovation to support their fields of activity.
Informations pratiques
What's new in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté?
Natural hazards: knowledge and warnings about ground movements
The challenges
Although the region has no high mountains, its topography means that it is sometimes subjected to numerous hazards, particularly those related to ground movements. Dwellings and road and river traffic routes are thus in danger of falling rocks, most often from the limestone cliffs that are a characteristic feature of the region’s topography.
The foreseeable consequences of climate change, in particular the intensification of rainy episodes, but also more frequent periods of drought, also threaten one of the region’s economic sectors for which it is traditionally renowned, grape-growing and wine production. Knowledge and mapping of the erosion hazard is thus a necessity for the region’s agricultural stakeholders.
Soulce-Cerney landslip (Doubs, 2016).
© BRGM - Aurélien Vallet
BRGM's involvement and responses
As part of its sovereign mission BRGM provides its expertise to government departments (DDT, DREAL, Prefectures) for characterising risks, in particular those related to the hazards of rock falls, mudslides, landslips, shrinkage and swelling of clays and cavities, whatever the assets being threatened (tourist sites, private property, public buildings, traffic and shipping lanes, etc.).
The BRGM teams also work to make data on these hazards available in various databases (Géorisques, CARTELIE) for the purpose of communicating about risks and empowering communities to beware of the risk of incidents and deal with them when they occur.
At the departmental administration level, BRGM supports the DDTs and the Departmental Councils by helping to produce "ground movement" scenario maps, which are valuable tools for drawing up documents warning about risks. Similarly, it brings its technical and methodological knowledge to bear for the production of departmental maps of land movement hazards.
Natural resources: sustainable groundwater management
The challenges
The karstic formations that characterise many of the region's landscapes increase the vulnerability of groundwater and also of rivers.
In a context of climate change, the growing pressure on groundwater resources makes it necessary to reserve them for drinking water.
The source of the Loue, a resurgence of the Doubs (Ouhans, Doubs, 2007).
© BRGM - François Michel
BRGM's involvement and responses
The decades-long degradation of the quality of water resources by anthropogenic activities have led BRGM to develop methods for monitoring and modelling flows through multi-year research programmes, as is the case for the rivers of Franche-Comté (Quarstic and Nutri-Karst projects), with the support of government departments (DREAL), local authorities (Departmental Councils, Water Syndicates) and the three Water Agencies of the territory (Loire-Brittany, Seine-Normandy and Rhône Méditerranée Corse).
BRGM does quantitative monitoring of 38 groundwater bodies that are part of the Loire-Brittany, Rhône-Méditerranée and Seine-Normandy basins, using more than 100 remote-transmission piezometers that make it possible to read and disseminate groundwater levels in real time.
The regional division also helps local communities (Le Grand Chalon, Grand Besançon) by providing them with the requisite knowledge to enable them to manage their strategic water resources.
And also by:
- monitoring and evaluating the implementation of catchment protection perimeters in Bourgogne and making recommendations (Regional Health Agency).
- integrating tracing data from the Seine-Normandy Upstream Water Agency into the tracing database and in the Seine-Normandy SIGES (Seine-Normandy Water Agency).
- characterising the typology of the catchment areas of Bourgogne and modelling the global hydrology in a context of climate change. HYCCARE Bourgogne Project (ALTERRE Bourgogne)
- Hydrogeochemical analysis of the riverbeds of the Territoire de Belfort (French Agency for Biodiversity).
- Studying the impact of anthropogenic activities on water and nutrients in the karstic basins of the Jura Massif (Nutri-Karst Project 2018-21. AERMC. CIA 25-90)
- Implementing a water-quality metrology system for the Loue catchment area (QUARSTIC Project. CD25 SMIX)
Geothermal energy: accompanying the energy transition
The challenges
In a context of energy transition, one of the objectives of which is to reduce CO2 emissions and develop alternative energy solutions, BRGM is working to promote geothermal energy in Bourgogne Franche-Comté.
Map of the very low-enthalpy geothermal potential of the Saône alluvial zone (2016).
© BRGM
BRGM's involvement and responses
On the scale of the main population and activity basins in the region, and in partnership with ADEME, BRGM has produced an atlas of the very low-enthalpy geothermal potential of the aquifers and the regional subsurface.
It also provides technical expertise to local authorities (Besançon, Chalon-sur-Saône) to determine the feasibility of geothermal projects for the development of new neighbourhoods.
Geology and Sustainable Mineral Resource Management
The challenges
Bourgogne is one of the leading French sources of ornamental rocks. There are also aggregate quarries in the Region. In order to manage these resources in a sustainable way, it is essential to identify and characterise them.
The Vergisson escarpment, a limestone formation near the Roche de Solutré (Bourgogne, France, 2007).
© BRGM - François Michel
BRGM's involvement and responses
The BRGM contributed to the development of a heritage management tool for different types of stones. It is able to provide guidance to operators and government services for planning purposes.
As part of the implementation of the Regional Quarry Master Plan, the regional division was entrusted with the task of identifying and characterising primary resources.
And also:
- the completion in 2017 of the standardised geological map of the former Franche-Comté Region and harmonising of the two former regions with each other. The DREAL now has digital maps at a scale of 1:50,000 of the eight departments that make up the new Region.
- making all its geological knowledge available to the public: consultation of 117 geological maps at a scale of 1:50,000, access to 37,000 files on structures (boreholes, wells, sources) in the Subsurface Data Bank (BSS), also accessible on the BRGM InfoTerre web portal.
