Résumé
Conflicts between water users may arise in some part of France, particularly during the summer period. This paper analyses water management in twelve case studies, comprising of river basins and aquifers scattered over the entire French territory. It shows that in France, water management is progressively moving from an administrative and "crisis resolution oriented" water management towards a concerted and "crisis prevention oriented" management of a resource which is more and more perceived as a common property. The administrative management mainly mobilises authoritative tools which are adequate to deal with unpredictable water crisis. Such situations occur when natural water supply, reduced for climatic reasons, cannot match an increasing and uncontrollable water demand. On the other hand, the concerted approach involves the local water actors in a negotiation over the choice of tools which can prevent the water crisis outbreak, or, if not, solve it. Such tools tend to supplant (or at least to complement) the supply oriented water policies implemented until a recent past. Then, the paper describes the four main steps of the concerted approach implementation.