O-ZNS

OBSERVATORY OF TRANSFERS IN THE NON-SATURATED ZONE

The Beauce water table, the largest drinking water reserve in France, is highly polluted relative to human activities and materialized by high levels of nitrates and pesticides still found today in groundwater.

The O-ZNS platform, managed by ISTO, aims to understand how and how quickly water and contaminants (pesticides, nitrates, heavy metals, drug residues, etc.) flow from the soil surface to the water table. To do this, its main device, located on the edge of a farm plot in the town of Villamblain (45310, locality Les Hotels), consists of an original infrastructure with exceptional dimensions and unique in Europe (well diameter finished ~ 4 m and depth ~ 20 m) that allows the realization of studies in real conditions, from the ground surface until the roof of the Beauce water table.

The well instrumentation, made using several environmental monitoring techniques, will collect data that will be used to:

obtain information about the different phenomena affecting the migration speeds of water and contaminants transported from the ground to the aquifer

improve the transfer modeling to predict the evolution of the state of the aquifer according to several exploitation and management scenarios.

The objective, once provided with these data, will be to offer more ecological advice / alternatives for agricultural practices and to preserve the Beauce water table by improving the quality of groundwater. The O-ZNS platform also aims to integrate, in the long term, national (OZCAR, etc.) and international (CZO, etc.) observation infrastructures.

EN BREF

visuel laboratoire plateforme o-zns — Caractérisation des propriétés de l'eau (conductivité hydraulique et rétention d'eau) d'échantillons représentatifs de la NSZ à l'aide d'un système triaxial non conventionnel

ORGANISM

CNRS

ISTO (UMR 7327)

THEMES

SOIL
SUBSURFACE
NON SATURATED ZONE
WELL
TRANSFERS
INSTRUMENTATION
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
RESPONSIVE TRANSPORT
COUPLINGS

Downloadable documents

Dépliant_O-ZNS_FR
Flyer_O-ZNS EN
ServiceOffer_O-ZNS_EN
OffredeServices_O-ZNS_FR

EMPLOYEES
1 RESEARCHER, 3 RESEARCH PROFESSORS, 2 ENGINEERS, 1 POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW, 1 PhD STUDENT

FUNDED PROJECTS
3 NATIONAL, 1 REGIONAL

M³ OF EXPLOITABLE VOLUME IN THE WELL FOR THE INSTRUMENTATION OF NSZ

TECHNIQUES OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

OUR SERVICES

Many means and tools are or will be available during 2019 :

Complete characterization of the initial state of the ZNS (geological, physico-chemical, hydrous and geomechanical properties)
Unconventional triaxial system for determining the water properties of all types of samples
Meteorological data of the site
Surface of 1 ha around the well for the implementation of measurement campaigns
Wells allowing secure access to the entire ZNS
Measurement equipment, power cables, acquisition panels, data mining software and power supply
Team mobilized to support the realization of research projects, training through research and all services desired

The applications enabled by the O-ZNS platform include :

The realization of measurement campaigns from the surface and / or in the well
Implantation of commercialized sensors and / or innovative prototypes from the surface and / or in the well
The development of innovative technologies for fine characterization of transfers within the ZNS
Evaluation of the performance of measuring instruments and in situ sampling over exceptionally long periods
In situ and real-time monitoring of coupled physical, chemical and biological processes
Better control of reactive phase transfer mechanisms in the ZNS
Modeling the effects of seasonal and multi-annual climatic and anthropogenic forcings on the groundwater resource through the quantitative estimation of the inertia of the hydrological system
Development and / or validation of multiphase reactive transport models to help control environmental risks
Obtaining multi-year evolution chronicles and the development of environmental databases

The O-ZNS platform provides the expertise of a team of renowned technicians, PhD students, engineers and researchers who can solve scientific problems and carry out ambitious projects.

It is open to all national and international academic and industrial research actors for:

Meeting the innovation needs of the private sector
Create multiple academic and industrial partnerships (internships, theses, post-docs, collaborative projects on regional, national, European or private funding, etc …)
Providing environmental databases
Give access to the exploitation of the device and its surrounding area (experiments, tests of emerging technologies, tests of the performances of numerical models, etc …)

Provide support for training, demonstration and communication to the general public