As part of the Continental Hydrosystems Commission of the French National Committee for Geography (CNFG), scientific excursions are organised each year in a different region of France for a varied audience made up of university students (Masters and PhD students, researchers and lecturer) and professionals working in the public or private sector (technical experts, regional institutions, etc.). The aim of this scientific event is to bring this CNFG committee to life by organising study days in the field. In recent years, the areas covered have illustrated a wide range of river contexts and socio-environmental issues: in 2017 in the Cher (18), 2018 around the mer de glace (74), 2019 on the Sélune basin (50), 2021 on small urban catchment areas (Paris region), 2023 in the Vésubie valley (06) and 2024 in the Ain valley (01).

This year's Journées Hydrosystèmes will take place from 9 to 11 July 2025 in Maine-et-Loire and will be organised by a team comprising Nathalie Carcaud (Pr at ESO-Angers), Guillaume Paysant (McF ESO-Le Mans), Victor Imbert (PhD student ESO-Angers) and Léa Paly (Postdoc ESO-Le Mans) around the theme of ‘Diversity of forms and relationships to watercourses: the Hydrodiversity of the Pays de la Loire’. Through a variety of fieldwork, they will present the research of researchers from universities in the Pays de la Loire region (Le Mans University, the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs Géomètres et Topographes (ESGT), the University of Tours, the University of Angers and the Institut Agro) and from a variety of disciplines (social geography, environmental geography, geology, ecology, etc.).

Over the course of 3 days, the excursions will enable participants to discover a number of sites that are representative of the diversity of river landscapes resulting from the scientific research and collaboration carried out by members of the ESO laboratory and partner laboratories. Each site will be the subject of presentations by researchers, local stakeholders and the managers concerned, who will present the sites, associated projects and their socio-environmental issues, thus demonstrating the multidisciplinary nature of the approaches taken.