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Resume Après trente ans de mise en œuvre des dispositifs issus de la territorialisation de la politique de l’eau, le recul est suffisant pour interroger leur contribution à la préservation ou à l’amélioration de l’état écologique des hydrosystèmes, devenus un impératif européen depuis 2000. À partir de l’exemple de la gestion de la rivière Drôme, cet article nous explique le processus de territorialisation ainsi que les conditions de l’efficacité d’une politique environnementale à l’échelle locale.

The process of implementing approaches linked to the territorialisation of water policy (river contracts; Water Development and Management Plans, or Schémas d’Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux – SAGE) began thirty years ago. This timeframe provides sufficient historical perspective to examine the contribution of those approaches to preserving and improving the ecological state of hydro-systems, an EU imperative since 2000. As a case study, the management of the River Drôme in the period 1980-2013, at once pioneering and exemplary, facilitates an understanding of both the territorialisation process and the conditions required to ensure the implementation of an effective environmental policy at the local level. The effectiveness of approaches based on territorialisation is associated with the capacities of water managers to use territorial aspects, on the one hand, to convince, encourage or constraint users to change practices that damage the aquatic milieu, and, on the other, to obtain from institutional and financial partners the necessary margins of manoeuvre and financial resources required to act effectively.