The French Agency for Biodiversity (AFB), created by the law of 8 August 2016 and the decree of 26 December 2016, has been operational since 1 January 2017. In mainland France and overseas, the agency contributes to the preservation, management and restoration of terrestrial, aquatic and marine biodiversity, the development of knowledge, resources, uses and ecosystem services related to biodiversity, the balanced and sustainable management of water, and the fight against biopiracy. Establishing reliable and shared data is a major challenge for these missions.
The AFB provides technical coordination of the information system on water, aquatic environments and public water and sanitation services. Along with its partners and territorial services, it designs and implements observation and evaluation systems for terrestrial, marine and aquatic environments and their uses. It is also responsible for the technical coordination of the biodiversity information system, including the Water Information System (WIS), the Nature and Landscape Information System, and the Marine Water Information System. It ensures their consistency and works to promote sharing and dissemination of data and indicators, particularly via the information services Eaufrance and Naturefrance.
In France, the purpose of the Water Information System (WIS) is the collection, conservation and dissemination of data and indicators on water, aquatic environments, their uses and public services on water distribution and sanitation. It comes under the National Scheme of Water Data (SNDE). The SNDE is supplemented by technical documents, some of which are produced by SANDRE, and must be respected by all WIS contributors in accordance with Decree No. 2009-1543 of 11 December 2009. The state establishes the elements of the data repository that must be used for the purposes of application of the regulations, and the conditions of their use.