The Mediterranean Observatory of Rural Environment and Water

OMERE is part of the study of global changes affecting Mediterranean hydro-agrosystems. It focuses on a hydrological context that is intermediate between arid and temperate environments and subject to a wide range of hydrological processes ranging from intense droughts to extreme floods, and on a social and human context that is currently undergoing considerable changes (intensification of agricultural production in favourable areas, abandonment of land that cannot be intensified, increase in catchment areas, hydro-agricultural or conservation developments) linked in particular to a rapid increase in population density. The various climate change scenarios developed by the IGCC predict major rainfall changes at these latitudes: a decrease in winter rainfall, an increase in stormy rainfall and extreme rainfall. In this context, the observatory is based on the acquisition of climatic, hydrological, sediment and solute flow records over the past two decades in two elementary Mediterranean catchment areas that are differentiated in terms of soils, hydro-agricultural developments, farming practices and their evolutionary dynamics: Roujan (France, mainly cultivated with vines) and Kamech (Tunisia, mixed farming). The observatory aims to i) understand the impact of agricultural activities on mass flows in elementary Mediterranean catchment areas: The observatory aims to i) understand the impact of agricultural activities on mass flows in elementary Mediterranean catchment areas: hydrological regimes and balances, allocation of water resources, erosion dynamics, changes in water quality; ii) assess the intensities and speeds of quantitative and qualitative changes in water and soil resources as a function of changes in land use; iii) support the development of approaches for modelling flows in cultivated areas; iv) provide scientific bases, references and diagnostic tools for agri-environmental engineering of cultivated landscapes OMERE is co-managed by four French and Tunisian laboratories (HSM, INAT, INRGREF, LISAH). It is part of several networks, including the OZCAR research infrastructure (https://www.ozcar-ri.org/), and is a stakeholder in the CRITEX project "National park of innovative equipment for the spatial and temporal study of the Critical Zone of Watersheds" selected by the Ministry in the framework of the 2nd wave of the call for projects "Investissement d'Avenir Equipements d'excellence".