How can well-designed and effective stakeholder processes deliver socially accepted and sustainable management of groundwater? And how does it impact social learning, groundwater literacy or innovative thinking among participants towards long-term groundwater sustainability? ACTeon will investigate these questions over three years in the INCLUSIVE research project (funded by the Belmont forum), together with the member of a consortium led by BRGM (the French geological survey).

The INCLUSIVE consortium gathers expertise of multi-disciplinary researchers from Russia, Taiwan, the USA and France. Its members are IWEP (the Institute for Water and Environmental Problems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia), NTU (National Taiwan University, Taiwan), UCD (University California Davis, USA), BRGM and ACTeon (France).

During the project, each of the consortium’s members will create partnerships and mobilise local stakeholders in charge of soil and groundwater management in 7 case studies, in the 4 countries. The project will also conduct transversal research assessing collective learning and the identification of pre-conditions for successful stakeholder processes.

In France, ACTeon and the BRGM will work with local water management institutions on the Seudre basin, the Adour basin and the Born lakes basin.