Sustainability of agricultural water in the Mediterranean vs. contemporary society issues

The paper is a review of the international conference entitled "Ecological, economic and social uses of agricultural water in the Mediterranean area: What is at stake?" held on January 20-21 at the University of Provence (Marseilles). The seminar was structured around the following four key points: from irrigation to sustainable water management, water rights: ownership and symbolic appropriation, biodiversity and water landscapes, and prospects for management, participation and governance. The analysis and comparison between experiences on both sides of the Mediterranean with different processes gave the 200 participants a rich framework of historic and current references and a range of interesting proposals for the future.