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27 October 2025

By: com

The Explore2 Project: Hydrological Projections to Support Water Resource Management

Funded by the French Biodiversity Office and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, the Explore2 project set out to describe climate and water resource trends across mainland France throughout the 21st century, while promoting their sustainable use.
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27 October 2025

By: HC

A Serious Game to Design Strategies Against River Pollution

Causerie — A Serious Game for Reducing Waterway Pollution
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20 December 2024

By: DIRCOM

New map reveals discrepancies in protection for watercourses in France

PRESS RELEASE - The Water Law protects freshwater ecosystems by regulating activities and infrastructure with a potential impact on watercourses, whose legal definition was established in 2015. A research team at INRAE has developed the first national watercourse map. This map reveals disparities in how this definition is applied from one French département (administrative region) to another, to the detriment of small headwater streams – which are often rich in biodiversity – and intermittent streams. These results appear on 19 September in Environmental Science & Technology.
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27 October 2025

By: DIRCOM

Intermittent Rivers: A Wake-Up Call for Biodiversity

For the past two decades, Thibault Datry has dedicated his research to the study of natural intermittent rivers — essential yet often overlooked ecosystems. A Research Director at INRAE, Datry has been a pioneer in developing this field in France and internationally. Faced with the challenges of climate change, the ecohydrologist warns of the growing fragility of these environments — vital refuges for biodiversity and key to maintaining ecosystem balance.
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27 October 2025

By: DIRCOM

Restoring River Continuity: A Collective Synthesis for Effective Co-constructed Projects

PRESS RELEASE — To restore or not to restore? A group of experts from the French Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Network (Réseau des Zones Ateliers Françaises), coordinated by INRAE, has reviewed the current state of scientific knowledge on the restoration of river ecological continuity. The group identified ten key points of attention to guide future projects. Their findings highlight the need to integrate socio-economic factors, alongside biophysical considerations, and to involve stakeholders throughout the entire restoration process. The analysis was published in the journal VertigO.
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27 October 2025

By: com

Ten European PhD Projects to Protect Ecosystems from Pharmaceutical Residues and Antibiotic Resistance

REGIONAL PRESS RELEASE – The International Pharm-ERA Project Launches to Improve Environmental Risk Monitoring of Pharmaceutical Substances and Antibiotic Resistance. The international Pharm-ERA project aims to enhance the monitoring and assessment of environmental risks linked to pharmaceutical substances, antibiotic resistance, and pathogens in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Stéphane Pesce and Chloé Bonnineau, both researchers in microbial ecotoxicology at INRAE, the four-year project is built around ten PhD research projects. A total of 15 partner institutions from eight European countries are joining forces to advance this interdisciplinary initiative. The project partners are meeting in Villeurbanne, France, from 25 to 29 November, for the official launch of Pharm-ERA.
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27 October 2025

By: com

The Laurels INRAE 2024 : One Award Winner from Our Centre

On 18 November 2024, The INRAE Laurels Ceremony celebrated the careers of women and men whose work has led to world-class scientific advances, essential for addressing agricultural, food, and environmental challenges. This annual event is an opportunity to honour the outstanding achievements of researchers, as well as — through a dedicated award — the invaluable contributions of technical and administrative staff serving the common good.
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07 July 2023

By: com

Glacier retreat impacts alpine river habitats, leaving biodiversity poorly protected

Temperatures are rising more rapidly in Alpine regions than the global average. Strongly location-specific, alpine biodiversity is particularly vulnerable to climate change because the mountain topography and weather conditions restrict opportunities for species to migrate towards the poles. It is therefore expected that the populations of alpine species will instead respond by shifting their ranges to higher elevations. By coupling models of future ice extent, glacial influence on downstream river habitats, and species ecological niches, an international team of researchers has developed a new method to identify potential future refugia for cold-adapted aquatic species. This new approach can now be used to predict future alpine biodiversity and ensure that actions relating to the adaptation of protected species offer maximum conservation potential.
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07 July 2023

By: com

Anthropogenic versus natural flow intermittence in river networks: causes, responses, and implications

In 2022, many perennial rivers across France, Europe and North America, ran dry. Where human actions, exacerbated by climate change, are the cause of such events, the hydrological and ecosystem responses may be very different from those found in naturally intermittent rivers and streams (i.e., without water for a part of the year). An international team of scientists from the European DRYvER project (coordinated by the RiverLy Unit) and the Dry Rivers Research Coordination Network (supported by the NSF) in the USA, have together been working on a comprehensive overview of the current situation for both human-induced and naturally occurring flow intermittence in rivers, examining causes, responses and implications. Their findings, published on 7 December 2022 in BioScience, demonstrate that we must develop contrasted adaptive management strategies for river networks affected by human-induced drying compared to those exposed to natural flow intermittence.
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07 July 2023

By: com

Decoding - Flood risk, understanding and anticipating

Millions of people across Europe are at risk of flood. Each year, in France, damage caused by floods cost between 650 and 900 million euros, and lives continue to be lost. The enormity of the risk posed by flooding was recognised in October 2007 by the publication of the European Flood Directive, requiring each of the EU’s member states to formulate flood risk management plans. For many years, INRAE’s scientists have used their research skills and expertise to improve understanding of the processes and events associated with inundation and to devise tools and methods to protect society from its impacts.
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07 July 2023

By: com

Ecotoxicology: identifying the impacts of (chemical) contaminants in the environment

Ecotoxicology is an interdisciplinary field with changing contours as it responds to major challenges. A look back at the work of INRAE, a leader in ecotoxicology.
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26 April 2023

By: com

The first global study to assess the extent of pharmaceutical pollution in rivers

PRESS RELEASE - Although medicines have improved human health and life expectancy, pharmaceutical residues cause pollution and impact the environment and living organisms. For the first time, a large-scale international study led by the University of York (United Kingdom), in which INRAE and more than 80 other research institutes participated, analysed pollution in 258 rivers in over 100 countries across five continents. Their results, published on February 14th in PNAS, show pharmaceutical contamination in all except three of the rivers studied, with levels that are potentially toxic to aquatic life in a quarter of those sites. The most polluted regions are in developing countries where pharmaceutical manufacturers are located or where wastewater treatment is inadequate.
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06 July 2023

By: com

More than half of the world’s rivers are non-perennial: researchers mapped them for the first time

PRESS RELEASE - A new study of 64 million kilometres of rivers around the world reveals that between 51% and 60% of them stop flowing periodically or dry for part of the year. These findings, published on 16 June 2021 in Nature, stem from the first-ever effort to empirically quantify and map the global distribution of non-perennial rivers and streams. This study, conducted by researchers from INRAE and McGill University, aims to strengthen recognition of the prevalence and ecological, and the need for improved management of these unique ecosystems.
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