The overarching goal of this research project is to develop and apply innovative methodologies to increase the social-ecological water use efficiency of managed ecosystems along the Mediterranean biome and climate types. We will focus on a diverse set of seasonally dry ecosystems, spanning a large gradient of mean annual rainfall (from 35 to 780 mm/y) across the Mediterranean biome. Case studies will examine the Mediterranean Sea basin from west to east providing the exceptional opportunity to develop, identify and compare water resources management and planning strategies for contrasting climate conditions in the Mediterranean region. We will define innovative strategies for the water sustainability in the Mediterranean region under current and future climate change scenarios, optimizing water infrastructure (e.g., reservoirs, wells network design) and water uses (irrigation, animal production systems, drinking and industrial activities). Strategies will be defined with stakeholders and government authorities, which will be actively involved in the project. To improve predictive technical tools for water resources assessment, we propose to develop innovative methodologies and techniques to better estimate evapotranspiration, the main parameter of the water budget in semi-arid and arid climates. To do so we propose 1) to combine the use of eddy covariance and tree sapflow observations, 2) advanced technical tools (remote sensing observations) will be developed to monitor the main state variables explaining energy and water balance at the land surface, and to include those observations in data assimilation systems to predict watershed hydrological cycles. The analysis of climate and land use scenarios will provide the inputs for the water resources management and planning to optimally use both surface water and groundwater. We will establish a transnational Mediterranean river monitoring network for sharing knowledge and data. Field sites and watershed case studies will be in Sardinia (Italy), Catalonia (Spain), south-west France, Cyprus, Egypt and Tunisia. The monitoring activity will be both at the field and basin scales. The case studies cover a wide range of spatial scales, climate and ecosystems, both natural and managed providing an extraordinary opportunity of knowledge development and international exchange along the Mediterranean biome and climate types.

The prediction of damage caused by blast waves, generated by large scale explosions or industrial hazards (accidents in industrial systems or storage units) is an important technological and research problem that needs further understanding from disaster prevention point of view. The ERANE project has two main important goals: (1) to understand the complex physical phenomena induced by blast and shock waves that pass through complex media (buildings, industrial plants, topographic reliefs, slopes, river valley, etc.) and (2) to help designing new devices for protection against shock and blast loading in an urban agglomeration.

Organic synthesis, especially multi-step synthesis often relies on numerous stoichiometric and toxic and/or hazardous reagents. In order to ease handling and mostly purifications, reagents as well as neutralizing or scavenger agents have been grafted to organic polymers, leading to the so-called solid phase organic synthesis. To go further, we would like to develop a new, alternative and complementary approach to the conventional solution-phase and solid-phase organic syntheses, i.e. a third way to perform organic synthesis. This approach, that we call the Zeolite-Phase Organic Synthesis (ZeoPOS), relies on the use of heterogeneous catalysts based on zeolites and related materials to perform organic synthesis within the 'green chemistry' context. Zeolites as well as metal-modified zeolites are indeed heterogeneous catalysts well known for their easy-to-prepare, easy-to-handle and easy-to-recycle features. In addition, these materials are also interesting and useful for their discrimination properties, due to their internal pore system at nano scale. Through this proposal, we first aim at broadening the zeolite chemistry toolbox to such an extent that we could apply this original approach to total synthesis of natural products, as well as to parallel synthesis of libraries of biologically relevant compounds. Furthermore, we would like to explore the reactivity in such confined media and prove that confinement effects in zeolite cavities could solve some problems of selectivity still encountered in organic synthesis, especially in cyclization and dimerization processes. If successful, this project will open the door to a new way to perform organic synthesis, the ZeoPOS. After a 2012 proposal (OrSyZe), highly ranked in the ANR evaluation process, we are submitting a more focused proposal with selected sets of zeolitic catalysts (Cu and Ag-zeolites) applied to 4 sets of reactions, 2 for each partner according to their corresponding expertise (ynamide synthesis and (spiro)cyclizations in Strasbourg; aryl ether synthesis and oxidative phenol coupling in Toulouse).