but also seeks to quantify the services provided by organic farming. While consumer
demand for organic products is steadily increasing, organic farming is not yet
meeting demand in the Île-de-France region. The region is therefore determined to
increase the proportion of organic farming to promote healthy and tasty food, at both
the individual and the collective level, especially for school catering.
In the Grand Morin project, by playing with the interactive platform, elected
officials and public services accepted the idea of only removing certain river weirs
(while at the beginning of the experiment, elected officials did not want to remove
any). ‘Compromise should be to have some sections free and to deal with black spots
of pollution with locks’ (Mayor on the Grand Morin River). However, once the
experiment was over, the actors resumed their strategic position, and some elected
officials went back on weir removal discussed during the experiment. Finally, the
weirs to be removed were chosen by the state services on the basis of criteria that
were external to the local actors. Here we see the limits of participatory mechanisms
to act on European regulatory standards imposed on local actors and the possibility
of territorial innovation. Nevertheless, in 2014, the CLE of the Grand Morin River
amended its watercourse management rules by recognizing both the heritage character of mill structures and its effects on river flow continuity and by asking property
owners to manage them in winter in coordination with the public services.
It seems that this type of approach is able to create interest or a commitment from
certain actors, which would then lead them towards a more operational reflection.
However, in order to promote such effects, it is important to ensure continuity
between this new participatory research space and the usual decision-making arenas
in the region. For instance, in the BRIE’eau system, the main actors are the local
community responsible for the catchment area, and the AQUI’Brie association is
responsible for its animation. It is this latter actor – who has worked closely together
on this applied research project – who will then be able to learn the lessons of this
approach in the pursuit of his work of territorial animation.
5 Conclusion
5.1 Evolution of the Programme and Scientific Methods
The PIREN-Seine scientific practices have gradually evolved over 30 years. The
programme was initially created at the request of river basin institutions to produce
regulatory science to improve the quality of the Seine River. Scientists soon understood that basic scientific knowledge was lacking (e.g. on river processes, on water
circulation) and that local issues could not be fully understood and resolved without
a consideration of the whole basin territory. Hydrologists, geochemists and
biogeochemists later realized that both the river network and the river basin that
they were studying at time t were actually dependent on the past and present
interactions of multiple actors and institutions and that history, geography, sociology, environmental policies and other disciplines needed to be part of the
River Basin Visions: Tools and Approaches from Yesterday to Tomorrow
407
demand for organic products is steadily increasing, organic farming is not yet
meeting demand in the Île-de-France region. The region is therefore determined to
increase the proportion of organic farming to promote healthy and tasty food, at both
the individual and the collective level, especially for school catering.
In the Grand Morin project, by playing with the interactive platform, elected
officials and public services accepted the idea of only removing certain river weirs
(while at the beginning of the experiment, elected officials did not want to remove
any). ‘Compromise should be to have some sections free and to deal with black spots
of pollution with locks’ (Mayor on the Grand Morin River). However, once the
experiment was over, the actors resumed their strategic position, and some elected
officials went back on weir removal discussed during the experiment. Finally, the
weirs to be removed were chosen by the state services on the basis of criteria that
were external to the local actors. Here we see the limits of participatory mechanisms
to act on European regulatory standards imposed on local actors and the possibility
of territorial innovation. Nevertheless, in 2014, the CLE of the Grand Morin River
amended its watercourse management rules by recognizing both the heritage character of mill structures and its effects on river flow continuity and by asking property
owners to manage them in winter in coordination with the public services.
It seems that this type of approach is able to create interest or a commitment from
certain actors, which would then lead them towards a more operational reflection.
However, in order to promote such effects, it is important to ensure continuity
between this new participatory research space and the usual decision-making arenas
in the region. For instance, in the BRIE’eau system, the main actors are the local
community responsible for the catchment area, and the AQUI’Brie association is
responsible for its animation. It is this latter actor – who has worked closely together
on this applied research project – who will then be able to learn the lessons of this
approach in the pursuit of his work of territorial animation.
5 Conclusion
5.1 Evolution of the Programme and Scientific Methods
The PIREN-Seine scientific practices have gradually evolved over 30 years. The
programme was initially created at the request of river basin institutions to produce
regulatory science to improve the quality of the Seine River. Scientists soon understood that basic scientific knowledge was lacking (e.g. on river processes, on water
circulation) and that local issues could not be fully understood and resolved without
a consideration of the whole basin territory. Hydrologists, geochemists and
biogeochemists later realized that both the river network and the river basin that
they were studying at time t were actually dependent on the past and present
interactions of multiple actors and institutions and that history, geography, sociology, environmental policies and other disciplines needed to be part of the
River Basin Visions: Tools and Approaches from Yesterday to Tomorrow
407