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How SOERE-OPE works: the OPE's Long-term Environmental Research Monitoring and Testing System

Photo of a winter landscape during a flooding period

SOERE-OPE uses ANDRA infrastructures not only for its operational needs (monitoring Project Cigeo and determining its baseline condition) but also for its scientific research requirements. One of its scientific aims is to compare the forest, meadow and farmland ecosystems. SOERE is not directly involved in the same industrial issues as ANDRA but its work is closely related to the country's major scientific concerns (which are described in the SNRI, France's national research and innovation strategy policy) with regard to the environment in continental/land areas.

The ANDRA provides the implementation and operational steerage for the OPE, allowing it to meet its operational and Research & Development requirements as part of Project Cigeo. ANDRA's operational steering incorporates the recommendations and assessments of numerous stakeholders, especially local authorities and institutions, as well as of its supervisory bodies (the National Review Board, or CNE; the Scientific Council; and the Nuclear Safety Authority, or ASN). The system is therefore not only able to comply with current French and European regulations, but also to propose a long-term environmental monitoring strategy that guarantees environmental safety. A Steering Committee meets every year and brings together the main participants, service providers and stakeholders so that they can share their views. This functional steering must also be carried out in close cooperation with the OTELO, the Universe Sciences Observatory of Lorraine, as well as with the project's main scientific partners and the SOERE's Scientific Committee.

Latest news

SOERE-OPE Call for Proposals 2012

The SOERE-OPE 2012-2013 Call for Proposals is looking for projects in the fields of Biogeochemical Cycles and Dynamics of Rural Areas, these having been the subject of think-tanks during the Outlook Day held in March 2011 at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris.

All projects that are submitted must be based mainly in the same region as the OPE but may also involve other geographical areas, in particular if it involves furthering the OPE's integration into networked monitoring systems (SO, SOERE, Zone Atelier etc.). Priority will be given to structure-building projects that show a strong interdisciplinary aspect or that bring together many national teams around a common environmental theme. Projects must last no longer than two years and require no more than €40,000 in funding.
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Two new sites for the OPE

The very long-term environmental monitoring needed as part of Project Cigeo can now benefit from two new permanent installations specifically designed for atmospheric (air quality) and forest ecosystem monitoring.
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The OPE tracks the Icelandic volcano

The ash cloud emitted by the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjöll was tracked over the Meuse/Haute-Marne Centre by the last of the atmospheric station's measuring instruments to be installed as part of the OPE.
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