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Source note · Maps and datasets · France

France · Water & risk

Water restrictions in force, tap water, rivers and groundwater, natural hazards and regulated facilities. Every value read from the public service that measures it.

French public data

The stations that have measured France’s rivers: 2 in 3 still doin mainland France · lighter where measuring continues

still measuredmeasurements have stopped

Hub’Eau, register of river gauging stations (code, position, in service) · a cell can hold several stations; it is light if at least one is in service1Public data · drawn, nothing generated
23,355groundwater measuring points, on top of the river stations.7
16,355regulated facilities in the Brittany region, the most in France.
3overseas territories that VigiEau doesn’t cover: French Guiana, Mayotte, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

Who publishes this data

Hub’Eau

Hub’Eau shares the data of France’s water information system. It is published by the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), the Vigicrues central service and the BRGM.4

For this sourceIts APIs serve tap water tests, river heights and flows, and groundwater levels, under the Licence Ouverte.4

hubeau.eaufrance.fr

Géorisques

Géorisques is published by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, through its Directorate General for Risk Prevention. The BRGM, the national geological survey, builds and hosts it.4

For this sourceIt serves the known hazards of each commune, earthquake risk, radon and the facilities regulated for environmental protection, under the Licence Ouverte.4

georisques.gouv.fr

VigiEau

VigiEau is published by the digital studio of the ministries of Ecological Transition, with DINUM’s beta.gouv.fr incubator.4

For this sourceIt publishes the water-use restrictions in force, zone by zone, based on the prefects’ orders, under the Licence Ouverte.4

vigieau.gouv.fr
Publishers
Hub’Eau, Géorisques, VigiEauOFB, BRGM, Ministry of Ecological Transition
River gauging stations
6,518of which 4,193 in service1
Dataset
Water, rivers, hazardssix families
Coverage
FranceVigiEau without French Guiana, Mayotte or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Updated
Depends on the datarivers in real time
Access
Freeno account, no key · Licence Ouverte

01What you can ask

From tap water to the hazards where you live.

Six families of data that Aureole can look up for you.

  • 138,830monitored factories, quarries, farms and wind farms2
  • Everywheregroundwater levels
  • Liveriver heights and flows
  • Livewater restrictions in each commune
  • Everywheretap water, commune by commune
  • Everywherethe hazards of each commune

The figures count what the source holds on the day of the reading; the sources themselves keep moving.

02What you get

Three questions, three answers from the source.

Ask Aureole: the answers below are the ones the source returned.3

You ask

Is there a Seveso site near Arles?

The source returns

No, none within 5 km

Géorisques · 19 monitored sites around the center
including 3 under the prefect’s permit

What you get

Each site with its regime and its Seveso status

Géorisques lists the factories, quarries, farms and wind farms the government monitors. Aureole looks for those around a place, from the nearest to the farthest, with each one’s regime and its Seveso status.

You ask

Is Arles at risk of flooding?

The source returns

Yes: 18 recognized floods

Géorisques · recognized as natural disasters, from 1982 to 2019
26 declarations in all, 11 hazards on record

What you get

The hazards on record, and every recognized disaster

Géorisques gives the hazards on record in the commune, the natural disaster declarations, the earthquake zone and the radon potential. Aureole counts the declarations by hazard and quotes them as they are.

You ask

Is the Rhône monitored in Arles?

The source returns

Yes: 1 station in service out of 3

Hub’Eau · Le Rhône à Arles - CNR (V730000302), in service
2 other stations, closed

What you get

Stations in service first

Hub’Eau lists the stations of a commune, open or closed. Aureole gives the ones in service first, then their latest height and latest flow, with the time of the measurement.

Answers read at the source on October 21, 2026, as examples: sources update, and Aureole reads the current answer when you ask.

03What makes a figure checkable

A checkable figure answers six questions.

A model can write “the water in Arles contains 6.7 mg of nitrates per liter.” For that figure to be checked, you need to know where, when, what it measures, who sampled the water, who publishes it, and how to run the search again.3

Where?
Arlesthe commune’s supply network
When?
August 18, 2026latest sample published
What?
Nitrates (as NO3)quality limit: ≤ 50 mg/L

6.7 mg/L

nitrates · tap water in Arles

Who sampled it?
Public health testingregional health agency
Who publishes it?
Hub’EauLicence Ouverte
How to run it again?
The Hub’Eau requestcode_commune=13004

In Aureole, this information comes with the answer.

The tool’s answer gives the latest sample, its date and whether it complies, then each parameter measured with its quality limit; 241 nitrate tests are published for Arles.5

Hub’Eau splits its answers into pages: Aureole reads what it needs and says when a commune has more measurements than it shows.

What comes with each parameter

1
Parameter · latest value
2
Date of the sample
3
Quality limit or reference
and whether it complies
4
The source
Hub’Eau, public health testing

Based on the tool’s answer, as the app’s code puts it together.

04Where it comes from

From field measurements to your conversation.

A river height, a water test or an official order passes through several hands before it reaches your conversation. Each one is identified: you know who measures, who decides, and who publishes.6

They measure

Stations, laboratories, prefectures

Stations record rivers and groundwater, health agencies have tap water tested, prefects issue the restriction orders.

They gather

OFB, BRGM, Vigicrues

The water information system and Géorisques gather these measurements and decisions, commune by commune.

They share

Hub’Eau, Géorisques, VigiEau

Three public services serve them through open APIs, with no account or key, under the Licence Ouverte.

Aureole

It reads

Aureole, on your Mac

Aureole finds the commune or the point, then reads the data from the service that publishes it. It sends only the commune, the coordinates or the station searched for; your conversation isn’t sent to these services.

DepthFrance’s public services for water and hazards, from their beginnings to today

  1. 1959BRGM · the geological survey is created
  2. 2011Géorisques · its data under the Licence Ouverte
  3. 2018Hub’Eau · APIs in open beta
  4. 2020OFB · the agency is born
  5. 2023VigiEau · restrictions go online

05Limits

What the source doesn’t cover.

And the precautions to take before drawing conclusions.

Gaps in coverage

VigiEau covers neither French Guiana, nor Mayotte, nor Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon: the tool says so rather than answering “no restrictions.” A commune without a river station is reported as such; the tool then suggests a neighboring commune on the same river, or a search around a point.

Data of the moment

A river height is the one from the latest measurement, a water test the one from the latest sample published. Aureole gives their date; for a flood warning, Vigicrues remains the reference.

Services to be used with care

Hub’Eau may block access in case of abuse. The tool reads one commune or one point at a time, never the whole country.

What the tool reads in one go

At most 20 facilities listed, within 10 km at most; 5 river or groundwater stations per read; at most 25 tap water parameters.5

On if your region is FranceNo account, no key. Elsewhere, you turn it on in Settings.
Settings→ Data sources→ Maps and datasets

Know about water and hazards from your Mac.

Aureole is a Mac app. Download it and ask your question: it finds the commune, then reads the restrictions, the tap water, the rivers and the hazards from the service that publishes them.

Download for Mac
Show the 7 sources for this noteHide the sources
  1. Hub’Eau, register of river gauging stations read on October 21, 2026: 6,518 stations, of which 4,193 in service and 6,194 in mainland France. Hub’Eau, river gauging.
  2. Géorisques, regulated facilities read on October 21, 2026, département by département: 135,527 out of 138,830 in all, grouped by region (API Géo). Géorisques, API.
  3. Values read at the source on October 21, 2026, in Arles (INSEE 13004): its center (API Géo), the monitored facilities within 5 km (Géorisques), the hazards on record and the natural disaster declarations from Géorisques, the Rhône gauging station and the nitrates in the tap water from Hub’Eau. VigiEau, Géorisques, Hub’Eau.
  4. Who publishes this data, and on what terms: the official pages of Hub’Eau, Géorisques, VigiEau, the BRGM and the OFB, checked on October 17, 2026. Hub’Eau, terms of use, Hub’Eau, about, Géorisques, legal notice, VigiEau, legal notice, beta.gouv.fr, VigiEau.
  5. The addresses queried, the limits and the territories outside VigiEau: the code of Aureole’s France · Water & risks tool (FranceWaterRisksNativeToolProvider).
  6. The milestones on the timeline, each checked at its source on October 17, 2026: the creation of the BRGM in 1959, the Licence Ouverte for Géorisques data in November 2011, Hub’Eau’s open beta in 2018, the birth of the OFB on January 1, 2020, the launch of VigiEau in 2023. BRGM in brief, Géorisques, legal notice, Hub’Eau, about, OFB in brief, VigiEau, legal notice, beta.gouv.fr, VigiEau.
  7. Hub’Eau’s groundwater measuring points (piezometers), in service or not, counted on October 21, 2026: the count field of the groundwater levels API. Hub’Eau, groundwater levels.