1. Project background/issues/objectives

Law no. 2006-1772 of December 30, 2006 on water and aquatic environments sets out guidelines for achieving the objective of "good status" for watercourses. It proposes new regulatory tools to improve pollution control, quantitative water management and restoration of the proper functioning of aquatic environments: fish and sediment continuity must be restored to France's waterways.

Under the impetus of the water agencies, this law reversed the trend to sanitize cities through "hygienic" urban planning, by burying watercourses.

As far as the Bièvre valley is concerned, we need to start with an observation, a legacy. The Bièvre, a small urban river, has been severely degraded for many years, as a result of industrialization since Oberkampf (and mills before that), excessive use of the river as far as Paris, and increasing urbanization of the...