Partners

Located at the heart of Rhone-Alps, the Urban Community of Lyon was created in 1966. It comprises 57 municipalities and covers more than 50,000 hectares. Its functions include water quality management, road maintenance, traffic management, domestic waste collection and municipal cleaning. The staff of the Greater Lyon urban services ensure the smooth functioning of the conurbation on a daily basis (with a 1997 budget of 5,73 billion francs). Grand Lyon manages drinking water, collects and treats every drop of waste water produced by the conurbation, to keep the Rhone river clean all the way to the Mediterranean sea.

Second largest French Region, the Rhone-Alps Region gathers around 10% of the French population in 3000 communes and 8 Départements (Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, the Loire, the Rhone, Savoie and Haute-Savoie). Its responsibilities span from general and vocational training (high school construction and maintenance, youth insertion in the professional world…), economic development and employment (support to businesses), regional development (regional public transport, Rhone-Alps "countries" development…) to international co-operation. The Region is composed of a socio-professional assembly (Regional Economic and Social Council) and of an elected representative assembly, the regional Council

Public State agencies, Water Agencies aim to implement a rational management of water resources, the fight against pollution and the preservation of aquatic environments.
There are 6 water agencies based on the main hydrographic basins.
The Water Agencies collect taxes from various water users, as per the " polluter pay principle", for any pollution they may have caused or for the water that they may have drawn. These funds are then reallocated in the form of financial supports (loans, subsidies) to local communities, industry and farmers, according to the principle: "who protects the environment is helped."

INSA, Lyon Scientific and Technical University is a State-run higher education institution and an active scientific research center. Each year, after a 5-year course, more than 800 engineers graduate in 10 different specialized fields. Moreover, thanks to its size and diversity, INSA-Lyon is one of the most important French Institutions of Applied Research. It is the host for the Field Observatory for Urban Water Management (OTHU), which is operated by an association of six different research institutions, in pursuit of an interdisciplinary and robust approach to urban water management.