REWANS - REwilding and Waterscape restoration via large-scaled Nature-based Solutions
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Rivers, wetlands and interface habitats form an ecological continuum – the waterscape – that is essential for maintaining biodiversity, regulating hydrological processes, and delivering a wide range of ecosystem services. However, these ecosystems are exposed to multiple anthropogenic pressures, including intensive agriculture, land artificialization, diffuse pollution, and habitat fragmentation, which alter their functioning and reduce their resilience. To improve our understanding of these cumulative pressures and to develop restoration strategies at the landscape scale, DECOD has launched the REWANS project.
REWANS combines the analysis of large environmental and biodiversity datasets with spatial modelling approaches to identify the drivers of ecological integrity in small catchments. The project mobilizes data from the European Water Framework Directive (fish, macroinvertebrates, diatoms), national databases describing land use, habitats, naturalness, and anthropogenic pressures, as well as biodiversity records covering several taxonomic groups associated with interface habitats.
Analyses rely on machine-learning techniques and species and community distribution models to investigate relationships between biodiversity, land-use patterns, and cumulative pressures. These approaches will be used to build and evaluate restoration scenarios based on pressure release, landscape rewilding, and agroecological transitions, while accounting for the expected impacts of climate change.
REWANS is coordinated by the DECOD research unit and involves a broad network of academic, institutional, and non-governmental partners. The consortium brings together seven research units, including UMR SAS and UMR LETG, with several work packages coordinated by researchers from INRAE and Rennes 2 University. Overall, the project gathers nearly 20 senior researchers and faculty members, as well as around 20 early-career scientists, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, and research engineers.
Funded through the PEPR SOLU-BIOD programme (France 2030), REWANS works closely with watershed managers, local authorities, and biodiversity stakeholders to develop decision-support tools that can guide ecological restoration policies and planning at the territorial scale.
People involved
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DANET Alain, Scientist Email : alain.danet@inrae.fr |
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DÉZERALD Olivier, Scientist Phone : +33 2 23 48 54 46 Email : olivier.dezerald@inrae.fr |
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MOREL Loïs, Scientist Email : lois.morel@institut-agro.fr |
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PETIT Eric, Scientist Phone : + 33 2 23 48 70 36 Email : eric.petit@inrae.fr |
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ROUSSEL Jean-Marc, Scientist Phone : +33 2 23 48 57 75 Email : jean-marc.roussel@inrae.fr |
Funding and Support
ANR (PEPR SOLUBIOD)