FEATURES OF HYDROGRAPHY AND WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN FRANCE

Abstract

Background. This article is devoted to the characteristics of hydrography and the assessment of water resource management methods in France, where there are long-standing traditions of watershed management.

Metods. Information from relevant French institutions was used, including the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, Sea and Fisheries, the French Agency for Biodiversity, six Water Agencies, and the global information system Aquastat-FAO (France profile). Statistical methods of information processing and comparative methods of calculating internal and total water resources were used.

Results. In France, there are about 125 thousand different watercourses that belong to the basins of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay, Channel). According to the terminology adopted in France, rivers are called exclusively those rivers that directly flow into the World Ocean. In France, there are 131 such rivers, of which only 10 (Rhine, Loire, Meuse, Rhone, Seine, Garonne, Dordogne, Charente, Escaut, Adour) are over 300 km long. There are over 38 thousand water bodies in the country - lakes, reservoirs and ponds. The largest is Lake Geneva (Lake Leman) on the border of Switzerland and France, in the intermountain depression between the Alps and the Jura Mountains. According to the hydrographic zoning, the territory of metropolitan France is divided into 6 river basin districts: Adour – Garonne; Artois – Picardy; Loire – Brittany; Rhine – Meuse; Rhône – Mediterranean – Corsica; Seine – Normandy. In the overseas territories, 5 river basin districts are distinguished: Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte. The river basin districts are divided into 24 hydrographic regions (sub-basins).

The average annual volume of total renewable water resources is 211 km^3/year, of which 95 % are internal (local) water resources (200 km³/year), and 5 % are external water resources (11 km³/year). The indicator of total water resources per person is 3277 m³/year, internal water resources per person is 3105 m³/year. The coefficient of external dependence of water resources is insignificant – 5 %. In 2020, the withdrawal of fresh water for the needs of the country's economic sectors amounted to 30.7 km³, of which 24.7 km³ were surface waters (80 %), 6 km³ were groundwater (20 %). Industry accounted for 52 % of the total water withdrawal, municipal water supply – 12 %, agriculture – 11 %, canal feeding – 19 %.

France's water policy is based on four main water laws (1964, 1992, 2004, 2006) and is regulated by the EU Water Framework Directive (2000), the creation of which largely drew on French experience in water relations. The development and implementation of water policy at the national level is carried out by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, the Sea and Fisheries (name of the ministry as amended on 23.12.2024), mainly through the French Biodiversity Agency, as well as through the General Directorate for Risk Prevention.

The main management unit for the river basin district is the water agency, a state administrative institution with legal personality and financial autonomy, under the dual control of the Ministry of Ecology and the Ministry of Finance. The water agency collects fees from water users (for water abstraction, for pollution). The French Water Agencies also pursue a policy of decentralized international cooperation in the field of water resources (with the Balkan countries, West Africa, Palestine, Vietnam).

Conclusions. It can be stated that France has created a real system of integrated water resources management with developed institutional forms, based on water agencies that are responsible for river basin districts and have legal personality and financial autonomy.