It is suggested to create the concept of Experimental Water Body (EWB) based on three mainstays: (i) the study of the body of water as a set of spatialized systemic links, (ii) a dense on-site measurement instrumentation inspired by the concept of Experimental Watershed (EW), (iii) the applicability of the scientific results as a management service. In short version, the EWB is defined as an instrumented and managed geolimnosystem. (i) The geolimnosystem is defined as a set of interrelationships between the limnosystem and its “geographic exchange space”. In determining the geographic exchange space, equal attention should be paid “upspace” and “downspace”. The upspace, larger than upstream, is regarded as the parameterized space which influences the body of water. Its most important part is the watershed, but it can also include other transfers of groundwater, inputs of air pollutants directly on the water body, etc. Downspace, larger than downstream, is understood as the parameterized space influenced by the body of water. It contains the emissary, the space affected by the microclimate, etc. These concepts have been applied since 1998 in the Great Pond of Cieux (French department of Haute-Vienne). (ii) The choice of a pond, therefore of a water body smaller than a lake, allows a high density of automatic measurement instruments and fine manual measurement campaigns, within the water body (equipped buoy chains, etc.) and also upstream and downstream (stufy of the emissary for several kilometers). The main instruments and parameters are as follows: weather data (Weather Monitor II station), evaporation pan, bathymetry, sedimentology, currentology (Dopler Anderaa MkII), water temperature (Tinytag logger), transparency, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, nitrates, phosphates, chlorophyll-A, phytoplankton, zooplankton. The geomatic processing of the data allows the development of a “limnomodel”, defined as the geographical representation of the spatiotemporal functioning of the water body, from which we extract the measured and calculated parameters necessary to meet any scientific and social demand. (iii) The choice of an artificial body of water, equipped with a drainage system, makes the link with management more concrete and useful.
