PhD – Thaïs Rakovitch – Managing water scarcity collectively

Climate projections point to a sharp decline in water availability in several French regions, and recent droughts show that changes in behaviour and technology alone are unlikely to be enough. Conventional public policies run up against a dilemma between fairness and effectiveness that undermines their acceptability.

The thesis approaches water scarcity as a common peril and explores the general average rule, an ancient principle of maritime law based on solidarity in the face of danger: can it reconcile environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency and fairness? This approach is compared with other water governance principles using a digital twin of the Seine basin, developed within the PIREN-Seine programme, which models surface and groundwater as well as interactions between institutional actors and users.