L’équipe

Voilà ce que nous sommes prêt à dire de nous quand cela est partagé sur la toile

Géraldine Abrami

I am a research engineer at INRAE, in UMR G-EAU. My role is to support and animate science-society dialogue. Before that, for around fifteen years, I developed multi-agent models and serious games to encourage discussion and create spaces where different forms of knowledge and perspectives could come together.

My current role has allowed me to broaden both the scope of my work and the range of people I engage with, from researchers to practitioners in the field and the general public. My main skill and my passion is to make connections — between the elements of a system, and between people. I enjoy my new multifaceted role, straddling research, engineering and research support, where I can continue to forge connections, circulate information and put  my creativity at the service of others’. I also aspire to contribute to the creation of experiences where people can navigate complexity together, but also bond and feel alive and touched, encompassing care and vulnerability.  

I grew up by the sea, but rivers are close to my heart… it is in their coolness and the greenery of their riparian woodlands that I go to recharge my batteries.

Amandine Adamczewski

I spend a lot of time following water. Sometimes through the large irrigation schemes of West Africa, sometimes across valleys where the resource is becoming increasingly uncertain. I am a geographer, and a bit of an agronomist too. What fascinates me are the worlds that water sets in motion: institutions, conflicts, memories, everyday practices, and possible futures. I enjoy uncovering the often-invisible mechanisms that shape territories and working alongside those who are trying to imagine new pathways in times of change. I started out studying tensions and conflicts, and gradually found my way toward supporting collective action and processes of transition. Today, my work is about understanding these dynamics while accompanying collaborative efforts to navigate environmental and social change. What I enjoy most in my work are long walks in the field, hand-drawn maps, conversations by a canal, and spending time with farming communities. Beyond research, I like making things myself: gardening, renovating old places, and taking on new challenges—whether managing a beehive or learning how to tan a sheepskin for winter. I also have a soft spot for art, unusual objects, and ideas that shift the way we see the world.

Olivier Barreteau

I am water scientist at INRAE, in Montpellier, UMR G-EAU, and director of Montpellier UNESCO International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Water System Dynamics. I have about 25 years experience in interdisciplinary research at the interface between hydrology, modelling, and management sciences in projects on local water governance, using social simulation with Agent based modelling and role playing games. My recent works focus on joint adaptive management of land and water against the background of global changes with issues of interdependencies between local adaptation plans. I am committed to inter and transdisciplinary research, keeping a strong link between policy makers, water users and research on the long term. Facilitating and taking part in workshops with stakeholders, benefitting from their involvement and interest to work out future pathways for their common future, is always a thrilling experience. Full commitment and passion make most often a constructive and positive combo!

Luisa Barquero

I am a PhD candidate in Water Sciences, conducting research on groundwater salinisation in coastal areas of Senegal, where communities depend entirely on communal wells due to the absence of tap water supplies. My research combines hydrogeology (geophysics and hydrogeochemistry) with participatory approaches, such as agent-based modelling and forum theatre, to characterise saline intrusion and discuss its impacts, perceptions and possible responses with local populations.

Justine Bassoul

Je suis chargée de projet pour un programme de soutien à la recherche régional intitulé « Défi Clé Water Occitanie » qui étudie la pertinence des réusages de l’eau. Dans ce cadre, mon rôle est d’une part, d’assurer les conditions favorables pour permettre le développement de projets de recherche et d’autre part, de faire de l’intermédiation entre la recherche et les acteurs des territoires, au sein de « Living Labs ». Je coanime ces Living Labs, afin de mettre en relation les différents acteurs et les chercheurs, pour élaborer ensemble des questions de recherche. Celles-ci sont étroitement en liens avec les enjeux locaux sur les réusages de l’eau. J’aime contribuer à tisser ces liens humains, construire des relations de confiance et apprendre auprès de chaque interlocuteur qui partage sa vision. J’ai l’espoir que les rencontres et les échanges entre une pluralité d’acteurs avec les chercheurs issus de différentes disciplines permettent d’élaborer des solutions durables et justes. Sinon, j’aime me balader en forêt pour ramasser des champignons, dormir dans un moulin et entendre le bruit de l’eau… 

Bruno Bonté

I’m a computer scientist who shifted to water Science. Since 2013 I have been working as a research associate at INRAE within the UMR G‑EAU on issues of modelling and simulation about water and society. Depending on the project, this work is linked to the theory of modelling and simulation, to companion modelling approaches, to the engineering of complex systems, or to the engineering of participation. More generally, my research focuses on the various formalisation steps that are specific to modelling and simulation. Over many years of interdisciplinary work and collaboration with water stakeholders, I have added a more reflective dimension to my research, considering what modelling means in terms of collaboration with other disciplines and with water actors.  Building on these reflections, my future research project will give particular attention to the different ways in which a socio‑hydro‑system model—acting as an intermediary object between stakeholders and scientific disciplines—fits into the studied territory.

Samia Chrii

I am an agro-economist working on issues of territorial development, with a particular interest in collective action and natural resource governance in rural areas. My work focuses on how local initiatives contribute to shaping more sustainable and inclusive forms of development. My interest in research emerged during my Master’s internship within a research team, where I was introduced to a reflexive approach to development and governance issues. Since then, I have been working in a research environment, mainly supporting and engaging with local actors involved in collective water management initiatives. For the past four years, I have been working closely with a farmers collective managing groundwater resources in southern Tunisia. This field experience provides a valuable lens to explore issues of resource governance, cooperation among stakeholders, negotiation processes, and the long-term sustainability of territories. My work aims to better understand how local forms of organization can support more collective, sustainable, and equitable management of water resources.

Anne-Laure Collard

I am a sociologist. I studied the movements of reconfiguration, reinvention or rupture in the relationship between water and society in contexts where water is scarce. I regularly collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines, which leads me to explore the modalities of interdisciplinary dialogue. Presently, I am exploring the use of alternative forms of writing whilst reflecting on the forms of engagement, the discomforts and the possibilities they offer. I like the color ochre, receiving postcards and taking small steps to the side.

Raphaele Ducrot

My background is in agronomy, but I turned to agro-geography as I realized that in order to comprehend a farmer’s decision-making process, you had to understand their territory:  the place and land they work on, the relationships and power dynamics they must negotiate, and the questions of justice woven into the landscapes where water flows and people live. This led me towards a way of working that is both systemic and relational — drawing on multiple disciplines and knowledge systems to make sense of how people and their irrigated schemes, water infrastructures, or catchments hold together and face risks, uncertainty and changes over time. Always at the intersection of research and intervention, I navigate with farmers, water users, and decision-makers to explore responses to these changes. For me, understanding complexity means stepping into it.   What moves me most is the people: It never ceases to amaze me, every time I sit down with a farmer, a manager or a fisherman how much we share. My sense of peace and freedom, though, comes from somewhere else entirely — from the sea. From wide open saltwater, and from the small, quiet signs of human life found along its edges.

Caroline Falize

J’accompagne les émergences, la mise en musique, les accords et les désaccords au sein des groupes. Je construits des processus et des rencontres participatives et les anime. Mon plaisir : ajuster les programmes au fil de l’eau, laisser la place à l’inattendu pour favoriser les éclosions et les liens en profondeur. Marcher, jouer, bouger, créer, éveiller le corps, les sens, faire danser les émotions, construire des installations et des histoires, détourner les regards pour mieux voir. Tout en douceur, en délicatesse, en prenant soin des besoins et des rythmes de chacun. Par ces approches sensibles, j’ouvre grand la place au dialogue et à la réflexivité pour accompagner maturité individuelle et collective et favoriser la coopération et les engagements au service du vivant.

Titouan Filloux

I am a PhD student conducting research about potential pathways towards sustainable futures for irrigated rice-growing systems in Cambodia. I am naturally curious and enjoy exploring a wide range of fields, a tendency that initially arose from the need to adapt to the demands of the research labour market but has gradually become a personal preference. I have been most involved in the study of agricultural systems, approaching them through multiple lenses, including landscape, historical, cultural, technical, economic, social, and environmental perspectives. I am particularly interested in understanding the contexts, rationales, and constraints shaping peasants’ existences, as well as the agrarian changes and transformations of rural territories within which peasantries are embedded. I mainly work on these issues in development contexts in Southeast Asia, but these are topics that interest me from a much broader perspective. Apart from that, I try to prevent computer technology from taking over my life by relaxing, doing outdoor sports, playing music, reading novels, and many other things.

Emeline Hassenforder

Mon voyage sur l’eau a commencé « au fil de l’autre » : j’ai parcouru le monde en suivant 10 fleuves transfrontaliers et en rencontrant des personnes qui œuvraient pour la paix bleue. Depuis, je suis officiellement devenue chercheuse et je n’ai cessé de tisser ce fil qui relie l’eau et les gens. Je m’intéresse à l’évaluation des démarches participatives sur l’eau. En d’autres termes, je cherche à comprendre pourquoi c’est mieux de prendre ensemble les décisions qui concernent l’eau. Et pour cela, je suis souvent très impliquée sur mes terrains. Il me tient à cœur de faire en sorte que les choses changent vers plus de durabilité et d’équité. Et quand j’ai besoin de m’échapper, je sors mes pinceaux…

Charlotte Hemingway

I am what one could call an agro-geographer specialised in the analysis of agrarian transitions (so far in the Global South) and inequalities in agriculture. My work examines patterns of social differentiation among farms and explores who benefits and who loses from different policies and development processes. My research is grounded in fieldwork, involving extensive semi-structured interviews, alongside observations of landscapes and agricultural practices. I am particularly interested in how material conditions — such as access to infrastructure and the use of resources — shape social inequalities. I’m trying to make visible inequalities in agriculture, with the hope that public policies and development projects better consider the social diversity of farmers.

Caroline Lejars

I am an agronomist with a Ph.D. in management sciences. Most of my research on water management is based on participatory approaches and methods designed to support water stakeholders (farmers, managers, decision-makers, etc.), particularly in the development of action plans and policy frameworks. When I am not hiking upstream rivers, I go canyoning or take walks along the riverbanks with my dog, who’s trained to detect tiger mosquito larvae!

Sylvain Massuel

I worked as a quantitative hydrogeologist in semi-arid areas and became interested in understanding and modelling the evolution of groundwater reserves in relation to societies. I engaged in interdisciplinary research on water that put to the fore the co-constitutive nature of social and hydrological dynamics. Apart from that, I find a certain sense of calm in the 10-years-long renovation of my house, a project where I can control every little detail and give free rein to my imagination.

Véronica Mitroi

As an environmental sociologist, my professional trajectory has been significantly influenced by rivers and aquatic ecosystems. This was not an intentional decision, but rather something that has become apparent as I reflect on my career. I grew up in Romania, on the banks of the Danube, and started studying sociology without knowing that Danube Delta would become the subject of my PhD research, exploring how local communities and the delta ecosystem have been historically co-constructed by various political systems and conservation policies. Unexpectedly, the flow of the Danube has led me to the peri-urban ponds along the Seine River, followed by aquatic environments in sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal and Ivory Coast) and South America (the São Francisco River in Brazil), where I examine how various systems of knowledge interact in water governance arrangements at different territorial scales. I develop participatory methods, such as co-production of indicators, water forums, counter-mapping, storytelling and visual methods, that can contribute to reconsider the questions of justice and legitimacy in water governance. I am engaged in active, care-ful water research that is sensitive to different forms of knowledge, attachments, and practices of caring for water.

Sylvie Morardet

Ingénieure agronome de formation, je suis une économiste qui travaille sur des questions de gestion de l’eau dans une perspective d’aide à la décision publique ou collective. Je m’intéresse aux comportements des usagers de l’eau, à la façon dont ils prennent leurs décisions et à ce qui les motive et les contraint. J’ai commencé ma carrière en construisant des modèles micro-économiques pour représenter la demande en eau des agriculteurs et son évolution en réponse à des mesures de politique agricole ou des instruments de gestion de l’eau. Par la suite je me suis intéressée aux valeurs accordées aux services fournis par les hydrosystèmes par ceux qui en bénéficient. Petit à petit j’ai élargi mon champ de recherche en adaptant et concevant des outils et des approches en appui à la gestion participative de l’eau et des territoires. Je pratique l’assemblage, le métissage, de concepts et méthodes issus de différentes disciplines. Parmi les outils, j’ai une certaine prédilection pour la modélisation qu’elle soit conceptuelle, économique, (un peu moins économétrique), ou sous forme de jeux sérieux. Ce qui me motive ce sont les relations avec les gens, que ce soit avec mes collègues chercheurs ou avec les acteurs sur le terrain. Mon ambition est de construire quelque chose d’utile, pour les décideurs, les gestionnaires de l’eau, pour mes collègues chercheurs, plus rarement directement pour les usagers et citoyens de base, et de contribuer, modestement, à une gestion de l’eau plus juste, plus équilibrée et plus durable.

Pour recharger mes batteries, j’aime fabriquer des choses avec mes mains : faire de la couture, du raccommodage, créer des jolies boîtes en carton, mais aussi les voyages à vélo le long des rivières et marcher dans la garrigue.”.

Andrew Ogilvie

I am a hydrologist, working on understanding surface water dynamics in exposed territories of large river basins (Senegal, Mekong…). I like to combine field observations, hydrological modelling and remote sensing approaches to better understand how human and climate trajectories interact with water resources. I relish getting away from my desk to spend time in the field playing with our tools and learning from the farmers, and water managers. Over the years this has led to working more closely with researchers across disciplines and stakeholders to co-develop models and tools and ground our research. When out of office, I’m hopefully on the water or in some upstream mountain catchment.

Amine Saidani

I am a researcher working on the interactions between water, agriculture, and territories. With a background in agricultural engineering and professional experience in the fields of agriculture and water management, I focus on water circularity in agricultural production systems. In my work I adopt a multidisciplinary approach at the intersection of hydrology, agronomy, water governance, and territorial dynamics. More broadly, I am interested in hydro-social systems, managed aquifer recharge, sustainable agriculture, and participatory approaches that place local stakeholders at the center of resource management and decision-making processes. Before turning to research, I worked in agricultural development projects within a consulting firm and later spent several years as an independent consultant in the fields of agriculture and water management in Algeria. These professional experiences continue to shape my research by grounding it in real-world challenges and stakeholder perspectives.

Romain Valadaud

I am a critical geographer who used to study on irrigation management in Asia. I learned a lot in these contexts, but I felt unanchored to a territory, a culture, and therefore a possibility to meaningfully impact the unequal and unsustaiable uses of water. A few more articles published by a white male in far away scientific journals did not seem like it would go a long way to produce change in water in authoritarien regime struck by a structural poverty. So I came back home, to France, to Montpellier a city were I was born and raised, and where, since then, I am working reflexively on participatory research. This feeds my attempts to build transdisicplinary alliances anchored in a hydrosocial territory in order to challenge power relations and structural to unequal and unsustainable uses of water. To cool down from work and militantism, I tend to walk a lot along all kinds of streams, small and large, quiet and talkative. It also feeds a growing passion for the creation of role playing games, which are increasingly water related…

Jean-Philippe Venot

I am conducting research at the interface of Science and Technology Studies and the Anthropology of Development. I use these critical frameworks in support to the development and implementation of participatory approaches to support just water governance frameworks. I leave lots of comments on drafts, but I also have a particular fondness for cats and dogs, and I love gardening on my balcony – this allows me to keep nature tidy and goes well with my eye for details. I also read and collect comic books but that’s another story…

Paul-Malo Winsback

I am a political sociologist, and so far my work has mostly dealt with the construction of water bureaucracies in Southern Africa as well as the development of water and electricity markets in Senegal. These different fields have strengthened my interest in a reflexive approach to conducting research, attentive to the structural inequalities that shape our everyday relations and what we often consider to “go without saying” – even more so in postcolonial contexts. I am now conducting research on sustainability science and its role in supporting transformative governance on freshwater in the Global South, trying to bring forth a reflexive and critical perspective on our research practices.