2024 edition

The Explore2 project, carried out between 2021 and 2024, aimed to map out the climate and water resources for the entire 21st century at the scale of mainland France, while ensuring their best use. It produced a set of unprecedented projections in terms of the wealth of models applied and their spatial and temporal resolution, with no equivalent in Europe, thanks to a community of forty or so scientists from different organisations who were mobilised and united around the challenges of climate change. Around a hundred representatives of potential users of Explore2 results have also contributed to the project. Together, and under the guidance of INRAE and OIEau, they have drawn up useful information that can be employed by water managers in their areas. To offer a better understanding of the uncertainties associated with the projections, the scientists have proposed four climate scenarios to illustrate the diversity of possible futures. Following the example of the IPCC, they have also drawn up a summary of the main conclusions at the level of mainland France for a set of descriptive variables in the water cycle, while specifying the degree of confidence in these results and the limits of knowledge. All the results of this foundational project for water policy in France are available online.