De l'aménagement intégré à la gestion globale des rivières : Les contrats de rivière ont 10 ans

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Designed in 1977 as instruments to develop quality target maps, river contracts have now become for the Department of the Environment, tools to encourage global management of a waterway. Three circulars - the latest is about to be signed - mark this trend. The drainage part of these contracts usually occurs without any major problems - aid from the Basin agencies are important in this part - but the other parts have greater difficulty in being implemented and are not always carried out in a way that respects the "natural architecture of rivers". For several years, the need has been stressed to have a diagnosis of all sorts of problems on the river before any contract is signed, and a body (intercommunal syndicate, association) is required to manage and coordinate not just the carrying out of developments on the river, but also its regular upkeep. This upkeep must be set down at the same time as the development programme.