Coordination of European projects: interview with Sonia Siauve, Project Manager - Innovation at OiEau
The International office for Water will be present at the "Carrefour des Gestions Locales de l'Eau" in Rennes from 31 January to 1 February, on stand 683 - Hall 8.
On this occasion, our team will be giving two lectures, one of which will focus on the following theme: "Water and climate change: innovative solutions. European and local projects" on 1 February at 9.30 am in the Atlantic Room.
Under the patronage of the French Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, this plenary session, moderated by Eric Tardieu, Managing Director of OiEau, will address water management in the face of the climate crisis through the presentation of real projects, presented by Sonia Siauve, Project Manager - Innovation at OiEau: ZEUS (industry), DRIAS-Eau (hydro-climatic platform), LIFE Water and Climate (NATALIE (nature-based solutions).
It was in this context that we asked Sonia a few questions:
Can you tell us about the issues addressed by the European projects you coordinate?
During the plenary session, two of the projects that I coordinate will be highlighted:
- LIFE Eau&Climat, a demonstration project co-financed by the European Commission as part of the LIFE programme, by several water agencies (Agence de l'Eau Loire Bretagne for OiEau) and by ADEME, which will run for 4 years until August 2024.
The project involves 14 partners: 5 scientific/technical and 9 local, all of which are responsible for 1 or more SAGEs (Schéma d'Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux).
The project aims to help these local water managers to better identify the vulnerabilities of their territories to climate change and to plan adaptation paths. The scientific and technical partners are there to support the territorial partners and have developed various tools, including the DRIAS-Eau portal, which will be presented to the CGLE: this is a new national portal developed by Météo-France (based on the existing DRIAS model), the aim of which is to simplify access to hydrological projections, while climate projections remain available on the DRIAS portal. It is important to note that all of these projections, i.e. all possible future climates and natural hydrologies, are currently being produced as part of the Explore2 national scientific project (which ends at the same time as the LIFE Water&Climate project).
- NATALIE, an innovation project funded 100% by the European Commission, as part of its Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) mission, which has just started in September 2023 and will last 5 years. It brings together 43 partners with a total budget of €16.3 million.
The main objective is to demonstrate to European regions, and specifically those that have signed the MACC pact to be resilient by 2050, that Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are robust climate change adaptation solutions for water management.
What is the role of OiEau?
OiEau is the coordinator of the LIFE Water&Climate and NATALIE projects and co-pilots the 'stakeholder support' strand of the Explore2 project.
For the first 2 projects, OiEau is also leader of the working group on communication, dissemination and exploitation of results.
In addition, for the LIFE Water&Climate project, OiEau is also leader of an action on mobilising stakeholders with the aim of taking action in terms of adaptation.
What are the prospects for this type of project being replicated by other players?
All the tools, portals and methods developed as part of the LIFE Water&Climate project can be accessed free of charge and made available to all French water managers via the page dedicated to the project on the Gest'eau portal.
In addition, information sessions have been organised since autumn 2023, with each of the water agencies, to inform all the SAGEs, via their coordinator and their supporting structure.
More technical training sessions will be organised in April and May 2024 via the two French water competitiveness clusters to ensure the transfer of skills between the project partners and external players.
Finally, a joint final conference of the LIFE Water&Climate and Explore2 projects will be held in June in Paris, co-organised with the French Ministry of the Environment.
