Management of Aquifers - Hydrogeology: Objectives, Methods, Applications - page 210

but local management networks also exist, at the scale of an aquifer, a river,
or a watershed. In order to respond to the needs of the WFD and to make
information accessible to largest number of people, a considerable data
integration effort is under way. The data is included in the RNDE (National
Network of Data on Water) and is also taken up by the new National Water
Information System. On the watershed scale, the Water Agency takes
ownership of the quality monitoring for surface water and groundwater,
while the quantitative monitoring is done by the DREAL for surface water
and by the BRGM for groundwater.
A few sites are worth noting:
￿ INFOTERRE, bedrock data from the BRGM, which is available online
(www.infoterre.brgm.fr) but is diffi cult to use, and is interesting to
compare to the USGS site (United State Geological Service; http://
water.usgs.gov/)
￿ ADES (access to Ground Water Data) (http://ades.rnde.tm.fr/ades.
asp)
￿ HYDRO, hydrologic and hydrogeologic database from the National
Water Data Network and from RNDE also accessible online (http://
hydro.rnde.tm.fr/)
2.1.2 Current state of knowledge in France
The goals set by the WFD restarted studies. But the funds allocated to
data collection remain very inadequate. Budget cuts, decentralization,
reorganization, and service restructuring, which are frequent in France,
are a considerable hindrance to long-term research. Numerous portions
of the territory are therefore underdeveloped in terms of hydrogeologic
knowledge, which does not enable the management of groundwater or of
surface water, as can be seen in the recurrence of fl ooding in the last few
years, which is too easily attributed to natural disasters.
“Governing is to anticipating” ( Emile de Girardin ), and if there is a
domain in which long-term planning is essential, water management is it.
However, a typically French bad habit is that of making political decisions
ad hoc , as a function of too-frequent events or elections. Elected offi cials and
scientists do not exist on the same time scale. After a year of drought, credits
are released in order to mobilize new resources, only to be eliminated the
following year if fl ooding occurs ! But naturalists' studies are long (see part
B), and therefore require an investment over several years.