Glossaire de A à Z

For a river, to ensure the free movement of species (in particular fishes) and the smooth flow of sediments.

Is defined by the free circulation of biological species and good flow of natural river sediment transport. The concept of ecological continuity did not take sediment transport into account until the Water Act of 2006.

Natural environment (land, water or air) for connection between areas of ecological interest, thus ensuring the movement, dispersion of species and allowing them to exploit these areas according to their needs and stabilize their populations in the best way possible. The "Grenelle for the Environment" requests to stop the loss of biodiversity, particularly by setting up a network of ecological corridors called "green belt" and "blue belt".

Is known to be achieved for an ecosystem when its abiotic and biotic native components (plants, animals and other organisms) and processes (such as growth and reproduction) or the development of biogeological and natural cycles are intact (dunes or river banks, clearings and edges that are not fixed, etc). For English people, this concept is often called a "healthy ecosystem", that the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC refers to as "good

Direct or indirect benefit that man obtains from nature. Ecosystems, and more generally biodiversity, support and provide many services, called ecological or ecosystem services, which are sometimes classified as common and/or public good, often vital or useful services to human beings, other species and economic activities. These services include the self-maintaining services, supply services,

Use of analytical methods and economic instruments to help define water management policies under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Indeed, the goal is to use the economy at several strong points of the WFD implementation: helping achieve environmental objectives - incentive overall price; at the assessment stage, to assess the economic importance of water uses in the district and…

Method used to evaluate the abundance of fish species in a portion of a stream and to precise the different populations. It consists in the creation of an electric current which attracts fish. Then, paralyzed by electricity, they rise to the surface, which helps their identification and counts. After a little while, fish are free to circulate in the stream again.

Elevation defined either in NGF level (French levelling network) or in relative depth. The NGF level, established under the control of the National Geographic Institute (IGN), is the reference. NGF can indeed express altitudes in one and unique reference system, i.e. as compared to the same and unique fundamental point (or "origin-zero" or point zero). The "0" level is the average sea level in Marseilles. This point is used to determine the altitude of any other point. The elevation of the piezometric record can also be expressed in relative depth with respect to the benchmark of the

Substance gradually found in the environment when monitoring and analytical techniques are improving. Emerging pollutants currently found are: steroids, medicines (antibiotics, hormones), the degradation products of non-ionic detergents, disinfectants, phthalates, flame retardants, antioxidants, etc. They are characterized by their long-term effects on health, such as the development of cancer, due to their accumulation and persistence, even at very low doses.

Refers to a taxon when the best available evidence indicates that it faces a "very high" risk of extinction in the wild.

General idea, an abstraction that is considered a reality. An entity is the modelling of a real object, i.e. a "station", a "sample point", etc. Data dictionaries established by the National Service for Water Data and Reference-dataset Management (Sandre) include entities (or objects) and

Component of the medium concerned by the investigation. The environmental compartments are, for example, water, sediment, aquatic moss, fish, etc. The environmental compartment does not correspond to the environmental compartment actually analyzed since it is generally a fraction of it which is analyzed (e.g., for the fish, the liver, or ... for water, the filtered water). We then speak about analyzed fraction.

Technical and financial agreement between partners for comprehensive, joint and sustainable management on the scale of a coherent hydrographic unit (usually a river, lake, bay or aquifer). With the sub-basin management plan (SAGE), the

A goal required by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The latter sets out four key environmental objectives that are: the non-deterioration of water bodies, the achievement of "good status" or "good potential" of water bodies by 2015, the reduction or elimination of pollution by "

Postponement of the 2015 deadline to achieve "good status" of waters, in accordance with the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. The greatest postponement, set at 2027, must be justified by at least one of the following reasons: technical feasibility, natural conditions, disproportionate costs, force majeure events (for temporary exemptions) or the development of projects responding to reasons of public interest.

Quantity of water that the soil can hold and return immediately to the roots of plants. It is expressed in millimeters (mm).

The extractable soil water (RU) is the fraction of the soil water reserve available to the plant, or that which can be extracted by the plant through root suction. It is expressed in millimetres of water.

Action d'extraire les matériaux alluvionnaires (galets, graviers, sables,...) du lit des cours d'eau, vallées et terrasses principalement à des fins d'exploitation (activité économique) ou d'entretien des cours d'eau.

Transfert permanent ou temporaire de la totalité ou d'une partie substantielle du contenu d'une base de données sur un autre support par quelque moyen ou sous quelque forme que ce soit.