Strategy

DEEP adresses two of the five major societal research fields at INSA, namely “Industrial and Urban Environment” and “Energy for a Sustainable Development”. We are developing our strategy in coordination with the REVERSAAL research group at INRAE Lyon within the framework of the common research center RESEED (RESsources Eaux Et Déchets).

DEEP's research in environmental engineering is focused on the control of environmental risks (emissions and transfers of pollutants) linked to anthropized systems (urban and industrial systems) but also to eco-technologies for the production of resources (energy or raw material) from the residues (waste or wastewater).

The laboratory's approach aims at defining, programming and coordinating actions and research projects by mobilizing our skills to achieve the production of knowledge, methods and tools allowing active intervention on the environment and / or on systems. These research outcomes must be applicable by the concerned stakeholders (design offices, manufacturers, local authorities, etc.). This research orientation is therefore essentially multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary and ultimately oriented towards application.

The scientific approach implements iterations between a global study of the systems, an understanding of the elementary processes that compose them, and a description of the spatial and temporal organization of their couplings. This approach includes process modeling, and the adaptation of appropriate mathematical methods (statistical methods, multicriteria methods, etc.) to characterize the investigated systems. Our research is not limited to the observation or prediction of environmental impacts, but also aims to prevent and reduce them, through the development of waste treatment or environmental remediation processes. In this context, an important place is devoted to systems allowing the recovery of valuable resources, including energy.

The originality of our approach is to develop a systemic approach based on 4 drivers:
    • Observation: this involves understanding the principles and processes that govern the operation of systems or environments through their observation at the field level.
    • Characterization: this involves understanding the constitutive elements of the materials and environments studied, their physical, biological or chemical properties, and anticipating their behavior and reactivity.
    • The development of methods and tools allowing the understanding and evaluation of the studied systems: innovative metrologies, understanding models, pilot devices, operational models, data management tools, decision support tools, etc.
    • The development of environmental technologies (ecotechnologies), whether in terms of processes or monitoring systems.