Water - EDF

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Anticipating climate constraints to preserve a shared resource.

Availability of water, both in quantity and quality, is a major challenge for the 21st century. The question today is how to share it at best between different uses. The challenge focuses on forecasting the scarcity or abundance of water over different time horizons, from a few hours to 50 years.

Formation of a vortex (suction zone) at the La Rance dam

A shared resource

How to share this natural resource at best between different uses? The challenge focuses on forecasting the scarcity or abundance of water over different time horizons, from a few hours to 50 years. Climate forecasts are necessary to predict water quantities altogether with air and water temperatures. The availability of water has direct consequences on the production of electricity, but the stakes

will also be different from one place to another as regards decisions on how to share water between different uses (drinking water, of course, but also irrigation and leisure activities). These decisions have to be made, moreover, against a backdrop of ever stricter regulations and, in France, within a context of renewal of hydraulic concessions.

Making better use of electricity in the water sector

Another objective of the Challenge is to identify any potential technological breakthroughs related to the use of electricity in the water sector, in terms of sustainable development (e.g. desalination, pumping...)

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The Hydro-ecology Committee is a think tank and discussion group made up of EDF and the university and institutional world on various scientific issues in wetland environments.

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EDF - Water

A shared resource

Making better use of electricity in the water sector

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