ABSTRACT
Since the 1992 Rio Declaration, the development of social participation has been strongly anchored in the environmental policies of many countries, with the purpose of improving both the efficiency and legitimacy of policy-making. However, in France, social participation has existed for longer in the field of water management as a key element associated with the establishment of a river basin governance system. Beyond words and expectations, what does social participation actually bring to water management? The aim of this chapter is to provide some answers to this question. To the extent that social participation covers a variety of situations, I will begin by giving an overview of it in the field of water management. This will be followed by an examination of the contributions of social participation to water management through the analysis of collaborative planning procedure called the water management plan. As many of these experiences are still in progress, because they may sometimes reach deadlock in spite of the potential they present, and because the forms of social participation themselves change, it will also be important to pay attention to the challenges that social participation faces today.
