Abstract
Groundwater specialists strive to make groundwater issues visible. They face a dual challenge: first to develop knowledge on groundwater and secondly to share this knowledge with other stakeholders who should be included in knowledge development, groundwater management and protection policy. Questioning communication is all the more interesting as groundwater is a quasi-invisible resource. How groundwater and issues can be made more visible? In the field of sociology, with a pragmatist stance, our chapter questions how instruments frame interactions and represent groundwater. Indeed, the groundwater is made visible by tables, indicators, maps, photographs, videos, games, stories in newspaper and spokespersons such as hydrogeologists. Within a project funded by AFB (French Agency for Biodiversity), we reported on a number of communication approaches and activities implemented in 11 case studies in France. The inventory is based on web mining, grey literature review and interviews. The chapter develops a transversal analysis of the use of the instruments, and identifies assets and limits across the cases according to the following categories: public targeted; content, issues brought to the fore and normative stance adopted; type/format. Finally, concrete recommendations are made.
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Notes
- 1.
The challenge of raising groundwater visibility is shared by many countries. In this project, a comparative stance with India was developed.
- 2.
Area of land delimited by interdependence to a waterbody (river, lake, wetlands, aquifer, etc.) and draining ultimately to this particular body.
- 3.
They were founded by the 1992 Water Act to define the management and restoration strategies at the local scale. In 2018, 184 SAGE were implemented, in areas that range from 300 km2 to 10,000 km2, more on www.gesteau.fr
- 4.
Contract between funders (e.g. a Water Agency, French State, municipalities) instituted by memorandum in 1984.
- 5.
Territorial bodies tend to associate municipalities at the basin scale in the frame of Syndicat, EPTB or Syndicat Mixte. One should consider that the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC strengthened the role of territorial body in water management.
- 6.
Two to five interviews per case with some collective interviews and some people concerned by several cases (consultant, civil servant).
- 7.
Geologists in English.
- 8.
“Initiés” vs “non initiés” in the French original version.
- 9.
Marjolet et al. observe during meetings a gap between those who speak of nitrogen and other participants who mention the issue of nitrate which has received much more media attention.
- 10.
Our study provides a benchmark for quantitative evaluation.
- 11.
In two cases: the Breuchin SAGE and the Crau Aquifer.
- 12.
E.g. one crafted with an aquarium, layers of sand and stones, and straws.
- 13.
Cartoons are used in the national press, but not in our cases.
- 14.
Facing the same issue of oblivion, flood markers remind the possibility of flood.
- 15.
Several management structures were created in the 90s and the SAGE were set up in 1992.
- 16.
If some aquifers are confined, management can also be. Sociology of science distinguishes participatory tools from the ones that are “confined” (Callon et al., 2009) within the restricted spaces of secluded research and representatives designated by ordinary citizens.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by AFB (French Agency for Biodiversity). The authors would like to thank Bénédicte Augeard, Delphine Loupsans and Claire Magand for stimulating discussions; Xavier Bernard, James Daly and Jeanne Latusek (IFP) for their fruitful contribution to the study; the editors for reviewing the first draft of this chapter and providing valuable comments and all the interviewees who shared their point of view and experiences.
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Richard-Ferroudji, A., Lassaube, G. (2020). The Challenge of Making Groundwater Visible: A Review of Communication Approaches and Tools in France. In: Rinaudo, JD., Holley, C., Barnett, S., Montginoul, M. (eds) Sustainable Groundwater Management. Global Issues in Water Policy, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32766-8_10
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