ACTeon Environment (France)

Effective marine policy relies on high-quality scientific data to inform decision-making and mitigate the risks associated with ocean-related activities. However, current marine biodiversity monitoring efforts in Europe remain fragmented and a lack of communication between key stakeholders—including scientists, policymakers, data managers, and reporting officers—further complicates coordinated action. To address these challenges, the “Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Harmonisation” study, initiated in 2024, aims to evaluate the current state of marine biodiversity monitoring and propose pathways toward a more integrated and effective system. Led by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, this collaborative study brings together experts from European Commission departments, EU Member States, regional sea conventions, international agreements, and major research initiatives. Through a series of workshops, the study facilitates direct dialogue among these diverse stakeholders, aiming to build consensus, identify areas of divergence, and enhance the coordination of marine biodiversity monitoring efforts and data pathways. This presentation will explore the study’s process, key findings, and recommendations for improving marine biodiversity monitoring in Europe. By emphasizing the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration and knowledge-sharing and needs, we highlight how inclusive science-policy-society interfaces are essential for achieving better outcomes in ocean governance. The study demonstrates that effective science-driven policy development requires sustained cooperation across sectors, and that working together is essential to build a more robust and efficient system for monitoring marine biodiversity.

Anthropogenic load was assessed using two groups of indicators of direct (organized) and indirect (diffuse) impacts on the example of small rivers in the closed region of the Ob−Irtysh interfluve. Among the many assessment methods, those that have been tested in geographic and hydrological studies have been selected. Detailing and verification of the results of the assessment was carried out using remote sensing, field research, chemical-analytical and statistical methods. The assessment showed that the main sources of pollution of water bodies are the territories of rural settlements, livestock farms (complexes), areas for walking livestock and poultry, household waste dumps and municipal solid waste, that is, sources of diffuse pollution. There is a higher level of load within the drainless region of the Altai krai in comparison with the Novosibirsk oblast, which is associated with a more intensive development of the agricultural sector of the region’s economy. An inventory of sources of anthropogenic impacts by remote sensing methods revealed some difficulties, such as difficulties in determining existing facilities and their uses, a mismatch in the number of livestock complexes identified using the register of organizations and by visual interpretation of space images. The analysis of calculated data on phosphorus and nitrogen loads on individual water bodies is confirmed by estimates based on the results of field hydrological and hydrochemical studies.

Deciding where to handle services and tasks, as well as provisioning an adequate amount of computing resources for this handling, is a main challenge of edge computing systems. Moreover, latency-sensitive services constrain the type and location of edge devices that can provide the needed resources. When available resources are scarce there is a possibility that some resource allocation requests are denied. In this work, we propose the VioLinn system to tackle the joint problems of task placement, service placement, and edge device provisioning. Dealing with latency-sensitive services is achieved through proximity-aware algorithms that ensure the tasks are handled close to the end-user. Moreover, the concept of spare edge device is introduced to handle sudden load variations in time and space without having to continuously overprovision. Several spare device selection algorithms are proposed with different cost/performance tradeoffs. Evaluations are performed both in a Kubernetes-based testbed and using simulations and show the benefit of using spare devices for handling localized load spikes with higher quality of service (QoS) and lower computing resource usage. The study of the different algorithms shows that it is possible to achieve this increase in QoS with different tradeoffs against cost and performance.

La prise de conscience du changement climatique et de la nécessité urgente de changer nos modes de vie sont un défi de taille. La compréhension des mécanismes qui régissent l’évolution de nos représentations collectives est un levier d’action intéressant pour les politiques publiques, en cela qu’il permet de les accompagner et d’améliorer l’efficacité de l’action publique. C’est le postulat qu’a fait la Communauté de communes du Centre de la Martinique (CACEM) en portant une étude socioanthropologique sur les perceptions et mécanismes de compréhension du changement climatique. L’étude apporte des éclairages sur les mécanismes actuels de production des représentations sur le climat en Martinique, et identifie des leviers pour les faire évoluer vers une meilleure prise en compte de la réalité climatique dans les actions de chacun et les décisions collectives.L’enquête menée montre que, si le changement climatique n’est pas remis en cause par les habitants, ses impacts sur l’île restent peu perçus et verbalisés, ce qui freine la construction de représentations sociales du changement climatique. Les concepts grâce auxquels le changement climatique est décrit à l’échelle mondiale sont peu appropriés par une partie de la population, sans qu’un vocabulaire local ne soit pour autant déployé. La prégnance des enjeux sociaux et économiques tend également à éclipser les effets à long terme du changement climatique, parfois dans un contexte de manque de confiance dans les acteurs publics. Cependant, les thématiques environnementales sont une préoccupation majeure des habitants, pour qui la question de la responsabilité (des autorités locales, de l’État, des entreprises, des individus) est centrale.En cela recèlent de puissants leviers pour améliorer la prise de conscience et initier le passage à l’action, tels que la sensibilité à la notion d’autonomie, la responsabilisation individuelle, l’aspiration au collectif et au lien social, l’attachement aux lieux et à l’identité martiniquaise.

Une vision prospective de la gestion de l'eau du bassin de la Durance et des territoires alimentes par ses eaux a l'horizon 2050 a ete elaboree, appuyee par une chaine de modeles incluant des representations du climat, de la ressource naturelle, des demandes en eau et du fonctionnement des grands ouvrages hydrauliques (Serre-Poncon, Castillon et Sainte-Croix), sous contraintes de respect des debits reserves, de cotes touristiques dans les retenues et de restitution d'eau stockee pour des usages en aval. Cet ensemble, valide en temps present, a ete alimente par des projections climatiques et parametre pour integrer les evolutions du territoire decrites par des scenarios de developpement socio-economique avec une hypothese de conservation des regles de gestion actuelles. Les resultats suggerent a l'horizon 2050 : une hausse de la temperature moyenne de l'air impactant l'hydrologie de montagne ; une evolution incertaine des precipitations ; une reduction des stocks de neige et une fonte avancee dans l'annee qui induisent une reduction des debits au printemps ; une diminution de la ressource en eau en periode estivale ; une diminution de la demande globale en eau a l'echelle du territoire, cette demande etant fortement conditionnee par les scenarios territoriaux elabores ici ; la satisfaction des demandes en eau en aval des ouvrages considerees comme prioritaires, au detriment de la production d'energie en hiver (flexibilite moindre en periode de pointe) et du maintien de cotes touristiques en ete ;une diminution de la production d'energie due notamment a la reduction des apports en amont des ouvrages hydroelectriques.

In numerous river basins, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive challenges the administrative authorization delivered for agricultural withdrawals. In such a context, farmers demand public subsidies for building water reservoirs filled in winter for summer use (substitution reservoirs) in order to compensate the water quota reduction and prevent drop in income. We here present a financial and economic assessment method for such projects and highlight how it is possible to support the decision in assessing profitability thresholds. This method combines classical project economic analysis and microeconomic modelling. It is implemented in the Boutonne River basin, where an 84% agricultural water quota reduction is planned. Our calculation shows that this quota reduction could lead to a drop of 3.2 M€ in agricultural income at the basin scale and creation of a 15.5 Mm3 water reservoir could offset the 19.6 Mm3 quota reduction. However, this creation of a water reservoir for irrigation is not feasible without state aid. Economical and financial criteria alone do not make it possible to decide on creating the reservoir, but they are usable for determining the impacts of public subsidize rates.