Glossaire de A à Z

Surface area feeding a watercourse or a body of water. The catchment area is defined as the area of water collecting up to an outlet: it is limited by a border within which all waters flow on the surface and underground to this outlet. Its boundaries are the watersheds (water divide - US).

Watercourses or part of rivers and canals entered into a list set by decree, after collaboration with the Departemental Councils made within six months after their seizin. Any new structure built on these watercourses must have a device ensuring adequate sediment transport and movement of

Fishing carried out by vessels absent from port more than 24 hours and 96 hours maximum.

Surface waters located between the baseline used to measure the width of territorial waters and a distance of one nautical mile.

Identifier of one measuring station managed by the National Service for Water Data and Reference-dataset Management (Sandre), issued by the Water Agencies for all the stations measuring water quality in their basin.

Amount of untreated pollution that reaches the entrance to the wastewater treatment plant. It is calculated by the ratio between the pollution entering the plant and untreated pollution.

Any system which, by measurement, observation or any other method, can acquire knowledge data on: aquatic environments, water resources and uses, pressures (and associated impacts) exercised on the environments and resources, and related economic data. It may be monitoring networks, surveys (water prices, economic activities), inventories (wetlands, lakes, flood-risk areas, protection perimeters ...), etc.

A sanitation process including a public system for wastewater collecting and conveyance to a treatment plant.

A sanitation system made of a single system in which wastewater and stormwater are mixed and directed to the treatment plant when there is one. During rainy periods, a portion of the mixture (overflow) may be discharged by storm drains.

Wood, piles, cofferdam, dam, fixed gear in the river bed, designed to stop the fish, protect the river banks, fix alluvium in heap.

European politics initiated in 1957 and implemented in 1962 on the basis of an agreement between the members of the European Union, in order to guarantee a sufficient food supply for the population, while ensuring sustainable earnings to the farmers.

Action to change and improve the concerned facilities to comply with the regulations affecting them.

Diagram showing the structure of the information system from the data viewpoint, i.e. the dependencies or relationships between the different data of the information system: a conceptual data model (CDM) formally describes the data that will be used by the information system. The basic concepts are:

Legal act regarding an agreement between the government or a local government and another public or private partner. There are several types of concessions: (i) the public service concession (method for the management of a public utility which consists in contractually entrust the management of the utility and the building of infrastructure to a dealer/concession owner acting at his own risk, and paid by billing the users of the service - (drinking water supply, sanitation, etc.), (ii) the public works concession (process for building public works characterized by the method used for the Contractor's remuneration, to whom is granted the right to exploit the work against payment for a specified time - (case of hydroelectric power plants with power at least equal to 4,500 kW); and (iii) the public domain concession (contract under administrative law granting to the beneficiary the right to use privately a more or less greater part of the public domain in return for remuneration).

Fully saturated aquifer with a confined groundwater layer limited at its top by very low permeability formations preventing any significant flow.

Convention by which the mayor specifies to an industrialist who wishes to connect to the communal sewer system the conditions to which this connection is authorized in accordance with Article L 35-8 of the Public Health Code.

System which allows the purification of wastewater by plants mostly reeds: the phytopurification. This method consists in making wastewater flowing through submersed plants, which roots have a high purification power.

All on-site measurements, samples and/or analyses, which are performed at a control point for a specified period, in accordance with a control protocol, for assessing a quality element and producing observation data.

The vegetation that covers the ground. The vegetation cover of a soil is an agri-environmental good practice which induces benefits, such as the mitigation of nitrogen pollution, soil protection and a greater biodiversity.

Low flow value below which the supply of drinking water for essential needs for human and animal life, and for the survival of the species found in the environment, are endangered. At this low-flow level, all possible measures to restrict consumption and

Refers to a taxa when the best available data indicate that it is facing a "extremely high" risk of extinction in the wild.

Periods between crop rotations, during which the soil is usually exposed and vulnerable to runoff, causing the migration of nitrates into water, but also accelerating its erosion and degrading its quality. Some crops, planted at this period (and called intercrops by extension) can reduce this problem.

Arthropods with a body made up of segments linked to each other by a joint membrane and wearing a pair of jointed appendix. They can be distinguished from other arthropods by the presence of two pairs of antennae. They live in freshwater, marine waters or in terrestrial environments. They can be mobile or fixed to a support.