The ETRES group gathers the UMR’s activities in the field of sustainable management of natural resources (Water-Earth) and viability of eco-socio-systems (biodiversity and ecosystem services, including socio-cultural services) in the context of climate change.

It is particularly interested in the co-construction with stakeholders of solutions that reconcile the use of renewable natural resources and the preservation of ecosystems (biodiversity, ecosystem services including socio-cultural services). It also evaluates to which extent these strategies can enable the adaptation and mitigation of climate change in fragile territories, leading to a sustainable improvement in the quality of life of populations. It is therefore a question of exploring, in interaction with stakeholders, the strong link between handling climate change, the use of resources and the preservation of ecosystems. On the one hand, limiting global warming and adapting to it could make it easier to achieve several of the objectives of sustainable development (terrestrial and marine biodiversity, poverty reduction, health, water, food security…). On the other hand, adaptation and mitigation measures can interfere with development trajectories with sometimes synergies but also undesirable effects. Aligning development trajectories with measures to combat global warming and preserve ecosystems is therefore a major challenge, in order to maximize synergies and minimize undesirable effects.

To achieve this objective, this group proposes to contribute to a better understanding of the respective influence of climate change and anthropogenic pressures on the evolution of environments and resources with:

• The development of databases of in situ and satellite observations data, and the elaboration of satellite proxy and landscaping to identify and monitor the impact of activities on the resource
• The development of unbiasedclimate scenarios at a sufficiently fine scale to allow the development of projections of the evolution of socio-ecosystems in a business-as-usual scenario type (B-A-U), but also to provide actors with tangible climate information allowing the development of what-if scenarios. This allows the actors to consider the different possible trajectories according to the decisions of current land use practices and public policies, but also their influence on climate and carbon sequestration by accounting for our understanding of the interactive multi-scale mechanisms exerted on these systems.

The diversity of the sites will allow the study of socio-hydrological or socio-ecological contexts under contrasting cultural, political and economic influences. The inter-comparison will provide us with a better understanding of the predominant factors that have led to changes (social, political, climatic, and environmental), identify how societies perceive and adapt to change and how this translates into political decisions. By doing so, we will also evaluate the potentials for experience transfer and consolidation of the observatories among the different sites, and make recommendations to the respective political bodies.