Abstract
In the last fifty years, many mountain watersheds in temperate countries have known a progressive change from self-standing agro-silvo-pastoral systems to leisure dominated areas characterized by a concentration of tourist accommodations, leading to a drinking water peak during the winter tourist season, when the water level is lowest in rivers and sources. The concentration of water uses increases the pressure on “aquatic habitats” and competition between uses themselves. Consequently, a new concept was developed following the international conferences in Dublin (International Conference on Water and the Environment – ICWE) and Rio de Janeiro (UN Conference on Environment and Development), both in 1992, and was broadly acknowledged through international and European policies. It is the concept of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). It meets the requirements of different uses of water and aquatic zones whilst preserving the natural functions of such areas and ensuring a satisfactory economic and social development. This paper seeks to evaluate a local water resources management system in order to implement it using IWRM in mountain watersheds. The assessment method is based on the systemic approach to take into account all components influencing a water resources management system at the watershed scale. A geographic information system was built to look into interactions between water resources, land uses, and water uses. This paper deals specifically with a spatial comparison between hydrologically sensitive areas and land uses. The method is applied to a French Alps watershed: the Giffre watershed (a tributary of the Arve in Haute-Savoie). The results emphasize both the needs and the gaps in implementing IWRM in vulnerable mountain regions.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financed by the Ministry of Education and Research and Pays de Savoie Department within the frame of the Water in Mountains program. The study was performed for a geography PhD defended in March 2010 at EDYTEM laboratory. It benefited from the invaluable contributions of PhD supervisors Mr. Prof. J.-J Delannoy and Mr. A. Marnezy.
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Charnay, B. A System Method for the Assessment of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Mountain Watershed Areas: The Case of the “Giffre” Watershed (France). Environmental Management 48, 189–197 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9683-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9683-7