: Irrigation canals as adjustment tools to prevent the water resource fluctuation’s effects of climate change.A case study in southern France: the Durance basin

International audienceThe agricultural sector is often considered as the biggest water consumer and is as such more and more targeted by policies aimed at saving water, in view of the global warming. Farmers are adaptating to this societal requirement by embracing less consuming irrigation techniques. In an interesting multidisciplinary approach, we intend to demonstrate how the territorial network of gravity irrigation canals in Provence play a role when it comes to dealing with the water management and sharing in the long run. Given this, traditional irrigation canals need to be reexamined for their usefulness in the context of global warming and the issues of water scarcity or excess raised thereby in the Mediterranean region. They are not only built aquatic infrastructure with a very positive, still little recognized, environmental impact; they are also the product of a culture and social relationship with water in this part of the worldLa reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit