# Integrated modelling of water management from field and farm to the watershed level: example of the Rhone delta

Rose Rodier, Olivier Boutron, Arnaud Béchet, Olivier Therond

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Rose Rodier, Olivier Boutron, Arnaud Béchet, Olivier Therond. Integrated modelling of water management from field and farm to the watershed level: example of the Rhone delta. LANDSCAPE: Agroecosystems in Transformation: Visions, Technologies and Actors, Sep 2024, Berlin, Germany. 2024. [https://hal-05251874](https://hal-05251874)

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Submitted on 12 Sep 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Integrated modelling of water management from field and farm to the watershed level: example of the Rhone delta

Rose Rodier 1,2, Olivier Boutron 1, Arnaud Béchet 1, Olivier Therond 2

## Introduction

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

* Deltas: complex social ecological systems, highly impacted by hydro-saline dynamics

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

* Integrated Assessment and Modelling (IAM) to represent complex system / provide decision support tools

## Aims:

Amplification and adaptation of the IAM MAELIA platform to simulate hydrosaline dynamics in deltaic systems

## Material & Methods

### Multi-agent Modelling of socio-Agro-Ecological systems for Landscape Integrated Assessment (MAELIA)

(Therond et al., 2014)

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

## Camargue

* Mediterranean climate with salinization issue

* Importance of agriculture: rice (12 000 ha)

* Biodiversity hotspot

Observed data to calibrate the model

(Torres-Rondon, 2014)

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

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Complex network of irrigation and drainage canals:
Irrigation: supply rice crop

Drainage: pumped back into the Rhône or discharged into marshes and ponds (canals on map)

## Hydrosaline dynamics in MAELIA

### Integration of an adapted version of SaltMod in MAELIA

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

* SaltMod: Model reservoir: water and salt balance

(Oosterbaan., 2001)

* Coupling with the existing AqYield model

(Constantin et al., 2015, Tribouillois et al., 2022)

* Spatialized

* Develop to be generic and model other delta

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

Aquifer reservoir balance under a set of plots (e.g. irrigated perimeter)
Σ 1, 2, 3, 4

## Conclusion

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>

Field

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Hydrology unit

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Delta

* Simulation of plot, farm and irrigation bloc functioning to estimate emerging properties at the delta scale

* A step toward a version of MAELIA to simulate interaction between human activities, ecosystems services, biodiversity and climate through integration of other models

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

## Perspectives

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

Calibration and evaluation of the model using existing local data (depth of the water table, salinity, coefficient of capillary rise and leaching)

(Torres-Rondon, 2014)

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

Scenarios for the Rhone delta: decision support tools

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

A generic integrated modelling platform to be applied to other deltas (e.g. Ebro delta)

## References

Constantin, J., Willaume, M., Murgue, C., Lacroix, B., & Therond, O. 2015. The soil-crop models STICS and AqYield predict yield and soil water content for irrigated crops equally well with limited data. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 206, 55-68.

Oosterbaan, R. J. 2001. SALTMOD; description of principles, user manual, and examples of application, Version 1.1. ILRI.

Therond, O., C. Sibertin-Blanc, R. Lardy, B. Gaudou, M. Balestrat, Y. Hong, T. Louail, V. B. Nguyen, D. Panzoli, J. M. Sanchez-Pérez, S. Sauvage, P. Taillandier, M. Vavasseur, and P. Mazzega. 2014. Integrated modelling of social-ecological systems: The MAELIA high-resolution multi-agent platform to deal with water scarcity problems. Presented at the 7th International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs 2014), International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, p. 1.

Torres-Rondon, L. 2013. Etude et modélisation des transferts d'eau et de sel en milieu deltaïque agricole (Camargue-France). Université d'Avignon.

Tribouillois, H., J. Constantin, L. Casal, J. Villerd, and O. Therond. 2022a. Introducing and expanding cover crops at the watershed scale: Impact on water flows. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 337:108050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2022.108050

rose.rodier@inrae.fr / rodier@tourduvalat.org

1, Tour du Valat, Research Institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands, Arles, France

2, Institut Nationale de Recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (INRAE), UMR 1132, Laboratoire agronomie et environnement, Colmar, France