Definition study for the information system on the Lower Var Valley

The Var river is the most powerful river in France and its bed lower part has been the place of a considerable socio-economic development.

The successive works and installations related to this development on the one hand, and on the other hand the exploitation of the river bed materials have created unbalance resulting in bad condition of hydraulic works (thresholds, embankments,…).

Questions on flood risks, such as the flash flood which occured in 1994, and on the groundwater table evolution and vulnerability have become major concerns for all land settlement and water resources management stakeholders in the valley.

The limits of the SAGE « Lower Var water table and valley” were approved on 12 January 1995, with a general aim towards the sustainable equilibrium between water and aquifers protection and compliance with needs and uses, taking into account ecological, socio-economical trends, and interactions with other fields of planning and development.

The first stage of SAGE works allowed to underline the lack of available data on the river Var, and the difficulty to interconnect existing sources of information because they are scattered and not easily accessible.

Considering the issue, the Mixed Syndicate for Studies of the Lower Var Valley (SMEBVV), in charge of works related to the SAGE development, selected IOWater to realise a “Study for the definition of an information system”.

This study was achieved in July 2005 and provided an analysis of needs related to existing data and to develop a « vision » of the OBSERVATOIRE including :
- Proposals for determining precisely the information system role in accordance with public policies and existing or foreseen information systems
- Recommendations related to organisational and technical aspects of the information system so as to optimize existing data scattered at the level of numerous local actors, and to produce additional data on priority topics
- Proposal for programme implementation and cost estimate over a first 2 year-period
- Demonstration prototype of web mapping application (GIS on Internet)