University Toulouse III and IRD participate to the BioROC project, related to water reuse in Occitanie, France

Two of INOWASIA’s partners are part of a project called BioROC, developed in the South of France. Dr. Magali Gerino (UT3) and Dr. Didier Orange (IRD) joined their forces with other French laboratories and companies to answer this question: What water quality and treatment system are best suited to limiting the development of biofilm in micro-irrigation?

The BioROC project stands for “Nature-based Biofilm Control for Functional Water Recycling of water in Occitanie”. BioROC aims to improve knowledge of the influence of biofilm in a bioinspired reuse chain based on Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and intended for irrigation. This project contributes to the adoption of innovative practices from the Living Labs of Toulouse Métropole and Montpellier Métropole Méditerranée. The aim is to test a panel of NBS (+/0 biodiversity enhanced by invertebrates) and different levels of treatment (+/0 tertiary treatment) to identify the methods best suited to the reuse of irrigation systems. The obstacles to be overcome are filter clogging and the clogging of ferti-irrigation systems by microbial biofilm. The quality of the biofilm and its dynamics will be described using sensors, metagenomics and mathematical modelling. These results will be used to identify levers for action to control biofilm dynamics in micro-irrigation systems.

BioROC is funded by the Occitanie Region, under the frame of the “Water in Occitanie” challenge.

INOWASIA is an Erasmus + Capacity Building Higher Education project that promotes a joint action of 11 organisations across 5 countries (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, France and Spain) to train a new generation of water professionals in Southeast Asia. More info