Analyse socio-environnementale des canaux d’irrigation en Durance. Des outils d’ajustement aux effets du changement climatique sur la variation des ressources en eau

[paper in French]The agricultural sector is often considered as the biggest water consumer and is as such more and more targeted by policies aimed at saving water, in view of the global warming. Farmers are adaptating to this societal requirement by embracing less consuming irrigation techniques. In an interesting multidisciplinary approach, we intend to demonstrate how the territorial network of gravity irrigation canals in Provence play a role when it comes to dealing with the water management and sharing in the long run. Given this, traditional irrigation canals need to be reexamined for their usefulness in the context of global warming and the issues of water scarcity or excess raised thereby in the Mediterranean region. They are not only built aquatic infrastructure with a very positive, still little recognized, environmental impact; they are also the product of a culture and social relationship with water in this part of the world.