Résumé
This chapter aims to illustrate through a real-world case study, the Thau Territory, situated on the French Mediterranean coast, how IWRM and territorial development can be combined to better incorporate people and place in IWRM approaches. Developing a territory with an explicit water dimension requires knowledge brokers between top-down technocratic public policies (including water policies) and bottom up development projects-supported by local population and politicians. In the Thau Territory, this role is played since 2005 by a multidisciplinary engineering structure, the SMBT (Syndicat Mixte du Bassin de Thau). Specific STICA (socio-technical information and communication arrangements) can be imagined by these knowledge brokers to bridge the gap between engineers, experts, local people and elected officials. An example is presented which shows how local knowledge of fishermen has been used to make an inventory of the Thau lagoon's seagrass.
Keywords: algal bloom, demographic pressures, eutrophication, facilitation, France, free divers, groundwater, information and communication, IWRM, knowledge brokers, seagrass, shellfish, spatial representation, territorial intelligence, Thau, tourism, urban sprawl