« The invisible water in the Critical Zone: from underground pathways to the water source »
After a three-year absence, the fourth edition of the OZCAR Research Infrastructure (RI) thematic school took place in the coastal village of Larmor Plage, a few kilometres away from the Ploemeur-Guidel observation site, which is part of the H+ National Observation Service (SNO). A total of 24 speakers and 35 students came together, ensuring the success of this fourth edition.
This week spent together at the Sellor-Plage water sports centre was organised around practical sessions in small groups at the Ploemeur-Guidel site, followed by lectures on hydrology and hydrogeology, on the invisible life in soils and the subsoil, on geochemistry and finally on geophysics.
The week was completed by presentations on the three observatories forming part of the OZCAR research infrastructure: the Ploemeur-Guidel site of the SNO H+, the Mont Lozère site and the SNO Cévennes-Vivarais Hydrometeorological Observatory (OMHCV), and finally the OBSURE observation site (Observatory of Sediments and Sedimentary Cascades in Urban Environments) in the Egoutier catchment area, now part of the SNO OBSERVIL.
The final element of this programme consisted of keynote presentations from the humanities and social sciences: work in urban planning, philosophy and anthropology.
This balance between the various approaches enabled participants to embrace new methodological and theoretical approaches, as well as new tools for measurement and observation, offering a multidisciplinary perspective both on understanding an observation site within the critical zone and on the interpretation of data, or, more generally, on how to approach their research activities.
Beyond this experimental science-based approach, sociological, philosophical and artistic perspectives help to situate the observatory within its local context; not reducing it to an open-air laboratory, but making it a vibrant and dynamic living space. This week, dedicated to discovery and learning, has also been a time for human connection and exchange, the very foundations of the IR OZCAR’s success.
You can read the complete report of the 3rd OZCAR summer school : to come
The OZCAR summer school website : https://ecolozcar2026.sciencesconf.org/?lang=fr
The 10 courses in streaming on the Youtube chanel OZCAR : open