Drinking Water: The Emergence of a Sustainable Resource in the Energy and Climate Transition of the Bordeaux Metropolitan District, France

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Since 2000, the development policies of the Metropolitan Region of Bordeaux have taken a definite turn to make water a major issue in its future development. A metropolis of 800,000 inhabitants, ranked fifth in France, with a world-renowned built heritage and continuous demographic growth, it benefits from a high quality of life. As part of a regional research project (Adeqwat program, 2018-2020), a multidisciplinary team of hydrogeologists and sociologists combined an analysis of the resource (functioning of aquifer systems in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region) and an analysis of its governance based on the stakeholder plays in water and urban planning policies (sociological approach).The main question is to know how these actors envision the future of the resource in 2050 from a solid experience and the current diagnosis. Thirty-three stakeholders belonging to public authorities and their agencies, private water companies and territorial planning departments were interviewed (interviews, observations, participatory workshops).The interviews not only reveal the objective of "securing" the resource but also its sustainable management to guarantee the living conditions of city dwellers in the long term. Three main results are advanced: first, water management follows technical progress, integrates environmental protection and adjusts to the new needs of the final users. Secondly, it penetrates into more general urban planning policies, shaking up the ways of thinking and designing the city.Finally, it is becoming the basis for a change in local governance that is more open to the metropolis' neighboring territories and to its inhabitants in order to consider a collective fate beyond the urban perimeter.