The Governance Context of Drought Policy and Pilot Measures for the Arzal Dam and Reservoir, Vilaine Catchment, Brittany, France

This chapter presents an analysis of the drought adaptation governance of the Vilaine catchment in the Brittany region in France and, more specifically, of the Arzal dam and reservoir located at the outlet of the river. Accordingly, the analysis focuses on the lower part of the Vilaine catchment, where two pilot studies were conducted during the DROP project. The material for the analysis was collected during two field visits. The first visit occurred from 16 to 18 September 2013, and the second from 16 to 18 June 2014, during which the Governance Team (GT) met stakeholders, managers and representatives of the relevant local action groups. The analysis is also based on several documents provided by the Institution d ’Aménagement de la Vilaine (IAV), one practice partner of the DROP project responsible for the management of the Arzal dam and its reservoir. IAV also plays a key role in supporting water management at the catchment scale of the Vilaine River. After a presentation of the French drought context (Sect. 6.2 ), including the description of the water management and drought adaptation strategies adopted in France, this chapter describes the main water use management issues for the Arzal dam and reservoir (Sect. 6.3 ). Section 6.4 is dedicated to the interpretation of the results of the drought governance analysis which was supported by the implementation of the drought governance assessment tool (GAT). Finally, in Sect. 6.5 , some recommendations are proposed regarding possible measures to improve local drought adaptation strategies.