Eric Sauquet, Director of research in hydrology, scientific leader of Explore2, INRAE (testimonial from the dossier “The Explore2 project, hydrological projections to adapt water resource management” – 2024)
“I have been working since the 1990s on characterising the functioning of catchment basins and since 2007 on the impact of climate change on hydrology and water management through projects supported by the OFB, the water agencies and the Ministry for the Environment. These projects to assist water management in different catchment areas sometimes go as far as integrating socio-economic trajectories to examine the balance between water supply and demand. In 2010, Explore2070 was a pioneering study of the impact of climate change in France. A few years later, there was a real collective expectation that this data should be updated in line with the work of the IPCC. This is what motivated me to get involved in Explore2. I received a great deal of support from my partners in launching and coordinating the project, as well as the confidence of the Ministry of the Environment and the OFB. Explore2 is not strictly speaking a research project. We debated and readjusted certain choices, which is a fact of life for any project and shows that dealing with climate change remains a subject for research.”
Testimonial from our thematic dossier
Thematic dossier
The Explore2 project: hydrological projections to adapt water resource management
The Explore2 project, carried out between 2021 and 2024, aimed to describe the climate and water resources for the whole of the 21st century in mainland France, while ensuring that they are properly used. 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 IOWater, they have devised useful information that can be mobilised by water managers in their territories. To provide a better understanding of the uncertainties associated with the projections, the scientists have proposed four climate narratives that 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 project, which will have a major impact on water policy in France, are available online.
