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En France, le bon état des ressources en eau souterraine est un enjeu majeur pour l’alimentation en eau potable des territoires. Pour préserver ou reconquérir la qualité de cette ressource précieuse mais peu visible, les gestionnaires doivent définir et mettre en œuvre dès aujourd'hui des actions de protection qui vont générer des coûts immédiats pour des bénéfices futurs difficiles à évaluer, souvent incertains et peu perceptibles pour les acteurs des territoires concernés. À travers l’analyse économique comparée de plusieurs stratégies d'action, cet article propose un éclairage sur les implications économiques des choix de protection des eaux souterraines pour l’alimentation en eau potable.

The landscape patterns are the results of the human activity that adapts the land cover and its use (LUC) to economic and social constraints/opportunities encountered by various actors. The temporal and spatial arrangement of LUC has a strong influence on environmental risks. This paper presents a methodology based on stochastic models to identify, locate and simulate the temporal LUCC of regions differentiated by their successions by means of "neutral" models. The differences between simulated and observed data make it possible to detect breaks in land-use development and planning. We assess our method on data that come from surveys in the Vittel-Contrexéville watershed (East of France) which is subject to water quality issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the strain on water bodies caused by sediment loads released after ditch network maintenance (DNM) is addressed in operational peatland forestry by implementing sediment control structures in ditches. This study evaluates computationally alternative sediment control scenarios in a 5.2 ha deep peat site in eastern Finland. Coupled to a distributed hydrological model, peat erosion and transport in the ditches were simulated for the first year after DNM with 15 scenarios consisting of individual structures (e.g., sedimentation ponds) and their combinations. One scenario represented the prevailing conditions with a V-notch weir at the catchment outlet. All scenarios were evaluated against a baseline scenario in which no structures affected the catchment sediment processes. The results suggested that bed erosion can be efficiently prevented with breaks in cleaning and structures ponding water. It was proven less efficient to trap already eroded material with sedimentation ponds and pits. The structures raising ditch water level had limited effects on water table levels in the strips between ditches, plausibly not impairing tree growth. The process-based modeling presented here provided a yet unexplored approach to comprehensively evaluating alternatives for sediment control, which is highly needed to address the gap between existing scientific knowledge and operational peatland forestry practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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