About the U3E experimentation unit

U3E is an experimentation unit of the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). It combines major facilities and scientific skills that are unique in Europe. It enables multidisciplinary research on questions concerning all components of river systems.

Some of the unit's facilities (the Oir, Scorff, and Bresle river monitoring sites), are designed for observing, measuring and describing change; others (the Rennes and Rheu sites) are designed for an experimental approach..

U3E also possesses tools for working at different scales on the continuum from individual to population to community to ecosystem, and in situations of increasing complexity from crystallizer to natural environment.