© Sora Images - Henning Larsen Architects, ETN Arkitekter and Skala Arkitekter
Integrated river basin management
In many countries, the river basin is now considered the pertinent level for planning development schemes in light of both hydrographic and human requirements. The European Union has enshrined this management principle in its Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Artelia is working with many water authorities and basin management agencies to help them apply regulatory requirements, in particular the WFD across Europe, draw up river basin management plans, conduct measurement programmes and technical, statutory and economic evaluations of projects, and assess their environmental and social impacts.
Artelia also helps river basin authorities to maintain the morphological and ecological balance of river corridors.
The city of Pointe-Noire (1 million inhabitants in 2013), considered as the economic capital of the country, has been undergoing very fast and uncontrolled urban growth in the past decades.
In 2000, the FAO drafted the marshland master plan by drawing up an inventory and a classification of marshlands depending on their pedological and hydrological characteristics.
Every year in France, about twenty départements are subjected to water consumption restrictions. The existing crisis management tools (drought decrees), which are theoretically only used on an exceptional basis, have become standard resource management tools due to chronic water shortages.
