Cilobar – reconciling water uses in the Provençal Baronnies region

A sparsely populated, predominantly agricultural region, the Baronnies provençales are experiencing a growing, but spatially very uneven, influx of tourists. During the summer tourist season, when the need for drinking water and the desire to go swimming are growing, farmers need to irrigate their crops, at a time when water resources are at their lowest and hydrosystems most sensitive.

These two activities find themselves in a situation of induced competition when it comes to their use of water. Predictions of the effects of climate change suggest that this situation could rapidly put the region’s rural dynamics to the test. By studying the relationships that agricultural and recreational water users maintain with their space, the Cilobar project aims to overcome existing and/or foreseeable conflicts of use by working on the interactions between human and non-human players in the socio-hydrosystem(s).

This project, which supports a Cifre thesis funded by the Parc naturel régional des Baronnies provençales, is co-financed by Zone Atelier Alpes.