UMR 1114 EMMAH - Mediterranean Environment and Agrohydrosystems Modelling

Activities

The EMMAH joint research unit is characterised by its multi-disciplinary approach, covering physics applied to heterogeneous environments, hydrogeology, soil ecology and agronomy. The complementary nature of its teams stems from this wealth of disciplines, making it possible to approach a continuum of objects (aquifer - unsaturated zone, soil, plant cover) and processes (transfers, physicochemistry, biology) to develop knowledge, characterisation methods and models. 

The UMR covers five main scientific themes leading to a better understanding of the processes within the aquifer-soil-plant-atmosphere system in relation to the properties of the environment and climatic and anthropogenic forcings.

The five themes are

1. Characterisation of heterogeneous media in terms of structure and physical properties ;
2. Characterisation of heterogeneous media in terms of structure and physical properties ;
3. Understanding and modelling interactions between mass transfers (water, particles, chemical substances) in soils and biological activities;
4. Assessing plant production in relation to environmental factors (soil, climate, access to water) and plot management;
5. Water dynamics in underground hydrosystems and their interactions with surface flows.

On the Internet : https://umremmah.fr/

ORGANISATION

ASSOCIATED RESEARCH UNIT
INRAE

Director
André Chanzy

Deputy directors
Konstantinos Chalikakis (Hydrogeology)
Arnaud Mesgouez (Physics)
Céline Pelosi (INRAE)

Courses offered

Staff from the EMMAH unit play an active role in teaching in the hydrogeology and physics departments of Avignon University (bachelor's, master's and CMI degrees), and in the teaching of IMPLANTEUS University Research School (EUR)The company also participates in the "Bachelor of Technology" courses in Packaging, Packaging, Conditioning and Biological Engineering.

Research activities

Hydro team

Changes in water resources in the context of global change.

Hydrogeology

The team's ambition is to use a multidisciplinary approach (geochemistry, hydrogeophysics, hydrodynamics, remote sensing, modelling) to provide a response to the societal challenges posed by the increasing pressure on aquifers.

The team is developing its activities in 4 areas:

1) the development of new tracers to analyse recharge processes, detect changes in the behaviour of hydrosystems and quantify the distribution of ages in aquifers;

2) the development of new hydrogeophysical and remote sensing approaches to characterise the spatio-temporal variation of aquifer systems;

3) the development of an integrated observation chain to improve model accuracy;

4) the study of changes in water quality under the pressure of global change.

Physical team

The team's work focuses on improving our understanding of certain physical phenomena operating in complex natural environments such as soils and rocks, on different temporal and spatial scales that are compatible with the human scale. The team is developing methods aimed at gaining a better understanding of complex environments as a whole, including the coupling interactions that may be observed within them.

To this end, the team, which is mainly made up of academics from CNU sections 60-61-63, is focusing its research on heterogeneous environments. The main idea is to analyse, interpret and model the responses of the medium studied to controlled or environmental stimuli. These may be mechanical or electromagnetic in nature, in propagative, stationary or transient time domains. The more specific impact of the presence of water, or even water content, is a common point in the various research projects.

A wide range of activities and scientific know-how are implemented and developed. The team develops its own theoretical models, which are implemented numerically using calculation codes produced in-house, but also uses commercial codes based on finite elements to simulate geometrically complex situations. The team develops instrumental benches dedicated to its own experiments and observations at INRAE sites and at the Laboratoire Souterrain à Bas Bruit (LSBB) in Lubéron. This experimental approach is used not only to feed its direct or inverse models, but also to refine its data processing protocols.
The two approaches, simulation and experimentation, are complementary. Methods of analysis, inversion and characterisation are developed, depending on the nature of the data.

Partnerships

Academic partnerships

• AMU, U. Rouen, U. de Savoie, U. Oxford, EEE U., Stellenbosch, Irstea.
• Institutional partnerships: CEA, IAEA, CNRS, BRGM, ANDRA, ARS, IFSTTAR IFPEN, Chambers of Agriculture, Arvalis-Institut du Végétal, Institut de l'élevage, Météo-France, ESA, SANSA Space Science

Industrial partnerships

• Suez-Environnement, Danone, Total, MEED, Orange Labs, MECA3D, Effidence, YBdesign, LUMIX, MEAS-IT, AIRINOV.
• Competitiveness clusters: risk management and vulnerability of territories and water.

Further information

Skills and know-how

• Remote sensing, geophysics, field surveys, imaging.
• Hydrodynamics, porous media, isotopic hydrogeochemistry, biogeochemistry, in situ characterisation, bioclimate, aquifer, karst, electro-magnetic methods.
• Physical and mathematical modelling, transfers, numerical simulation, statistical physics, data assimilation.

Know-how

• Characterise the condition of the soil, its surface and subsoil, as well as the transfer of water, solutes and biotic/abiotic particles involving the soil.
• To model the evolution of the soil, aquifers and the landscape at different scales and to link these scales together.

Specific equipment

• Four workshop sites: Crau-Camargue, Plateforme Lysimètre, Site flux-télédétection, Bassin versant expérimental fontaine de Vaucluse-LSBB.
• Avizo Fire image processing software (Domaine Saint Paul).
• Isotope analysis laboratory (city centre).