Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Water abstractions in France Organization, regionalisation A. Dubois (IFEN)

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Water administration  Water management organized/improved by different successive laws in France (1964, 1992 and 2006)  Water management  delegated to 6 Water Agencies  Coordination by ministry for environment  Standardization (data, concepts) by SANDRE  Data dictionary  Model of database…  ! Recent and on progress work Artois-Picardie Seine-Normandie Loire-Bretagne Adour-Garonne Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse Rhin-Meuse

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Abstractions organization  Who is concerned ?  All activities that abstract water (except for some particular uses as geothermal energy)  Water abstractions subjected to:  Administrative authorization  Annual taxes  Annual taxes enable to have historic data of the water abstractions

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Abstractions organization  How ?  Definition of a water abstraction point  Main user = taxpayer  Watermeter or fixed estimation volume (flat rate)  What and when ?  The main user has to keep monthly data in case of control  Obligation to declare the annual abstracted volume (in April for the previous year) to the Water Agency  Obligation to declare and pay taxes if volumes  > 7000 m 3 -if protected areas-  otherwise > m 3

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Consequences  Data are provided by 6 Water Agencies :  Data available at the water abstraction point Pb of coherence, homogeneity of the data between the Agencies Historical dataPart of the volume estimated (agriculture) Annual updatingOnly annual data is mandatory

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Data issues  Heteregeneous data:  Loire-Bretagne:  12 different concepts of resource between surface and groundwater  8 methods of volume estimation/counting  Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse:  31 different categories of uses  35 methods to estimate the volume  particular methods for irrigation  Others Agencies:  2 resources (surface or groundwater)  4 uses  Volume estimated or counted

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Data issues  Aggregation according to a typology to define:  Resource: groundwater or surface water ?  Main use: 4 categories  Public water supply  Industry  Agriculture (mainly irrigation)  Energy: production of electricity  Part of the estimated volume compared to measurement  Historical habits:  Rhin-Meuse: only estimation for agriculture (flat rate)  Traditional irrigation practises in the basin Rhône- Méditerranée-Corse

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Some results  Example in 2002: Total France : millions m 3 90% measured Total France : millions m 3 87% measured

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Some results  Example in 2002:  Pb with representativity of abstractions for agriculture  millions m 3

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Data control and correction  Decision in 2004 to correct abstractions for agriculture:  Based upon the irrigated surface declared by the water abstractors and collected by the Water Agency surf water_agency  Comparison with the declared irrigated surface to the Min. of Agriculture surf min_agri  If surf water_agency <surf min_agri estimation of the real abstracted volume  Vol=Vol water_agency +(surf min_agri -surf water_agency )*rate  Rate depends on type of irrigation some historical practises are more water consumptive  Only possible:  at administrative scale (not river basin district)  since 2000

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Impact of the correction  Importance of the correction:  Methodology achieved with close cooperation of the Water Agencies  At the same time, help program led by Water Agencies to equip farmers with water meters  Improvement of the representativity of the data, decrease of the part estimated

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Regional data per sector in 2004  Annual abstractions calculated at administrative department and regions public water supply mio m 3 Abstractions in 2004 Industry 3286 mio m 3

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Regional data per sector in 2004 energy mio m 3 Abstractions in 2004 agriculture/irrigation 5148 mio m 3

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Abstractions by sources * Data not corrected for agriculture Both: Agriculture: minor Public water supply: major part in groundwater Differences: Part of the industry and Energy in Rhin-Meuse

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Abstractions by sources * Data not corrected for agriculture Both: Public water supply: shared between sources Agriculture: More significant Differences: Part of the industry in Adour Garonne and energy in Loire-Bretagne

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Abstractions by sources * Data not corrected for agriculture Both: Public water supply: Important abstractions Differences: Part of the energy and agriculture in Rhône-Méd Agriculture: nearly only surface water

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Perspectives  Part of the estimated/flat rate volume decreasing  More and more representative data  Correction may become no longer necessary  Abstractions evaluation may be possible at river basin district level in the future (probably since 2005 data)  Better homogeneity of the data  standardization of the concepts thanks to the work of SANDRE (  Data dictionary  Better description of the water abstraction point: more and more precise coordinates

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Perspectives  Definition of 11 main uses shared by the Water Agencies:  Agriculture (stock breeding)  Irrigation  Industry  Public water supply  Energy  Sporting and leisure activities  Bottling up  Hydrotherapy  Fire defence  Depollution  Artificial aquifer recharge  Data collecting to improve: pb of availibility, timeliness

Workshop ‘Water Quantity and Use’ - EEA- 10th-11th June 2008 Thank You ! Available data on French water abstractions on the website: Data on water availability on the web site: