Institutional landscape of water management in France

Water is a common good with a dual characteristic: it is both a resource and an environment. Its cyclical nature means that it cannot be managed as a stock. Its management therefore calls into question quantitative and qualitative aspects that need to be placed in a spatial and temporal dynamic: shortages during low-water periods, risk prevention during floods, differentiated problems depending on whether the water is at the head of a basin, on a plain or in an estuary, in a rural or urban area...

At the heart of mankind's needs, the means of developing and regulating river systems to exploit this resource have existed for centuries. To begin with, we will place the methods that have governed water policy in a historical perspective, before analyzing the contributions of successive water laws in France.

To ensure the proper management of water resources, these laws set up dedicated geographical perimeters and financial circuits, as well as specific arrangements for relations between users and public authorities, whether through regulation or consultation.

Today, more than ever before, these different players - whose roles we will briefly outline according to whether they are users, managers, regulators or financial incentives - must work together in a complementary and concerted fashion to achieve the "good water status" objectives set by Europe.