Démarche territoriale et systèmes d'information géographique pour une gestion concertée de l'eau / A spatial approach and the use of G.I.S. in the collective management of water resources

The French Water Law has established tools for the planning and management of water resources with the aim of creating a long-term balance between satisfying different demands and the preservation of natural environments. These tools are innovative in seeking to take account, in the planning process, of the practices and values of different actors. A description of how ecosystems work and of different uses made of rivers, as well as the values that the actors attribute to them, needs to be integrated into a common conceptual framework. This article outlines an approach based on the construction of territories by giving a spatial dimension to ecosystems, river uses and the resources of different actors ; it also shows the value of G.I.S. in this approach.