Extreme climate events – whether drought or flooding – are increasing in both number and intensity, with consequences for the environment and humanity, leading to a general imbalance in our water resources. There is now an urgent need to better manage rainwater using techniques developed to work right where rain hits the ground, for example by making surfaces more natural for more effective groundwater runoff.

We must go even further and make good use of rainwater as an alternative resource, adopting a “sponge cities” approach to limit the effects of water shortages. To this end, researchers are experimenting with gullies fitted with sensors to quantify the penetration of water and observe the way organisms and plants that favour this process behave. Studying these interactions between climatic, physical and biological systems, first on a local scale and later across a wider area, is a way to better understand how urban planning works.

Also with an eye on improved water preservation, researchers are studying the reuse of rainwater and even wastewater, including as substitutes for drinking water for certain targeted uses increasingly accepted in the eyes of the population, such as irrigation, cleaning roads, firefighting, etc.

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