Even if IWRM has emerged as a dominant paradigm for more than 70 years and is now worldwide promoted, it is still facing a major challenge of practical implementation. To cope with this issue, we investigate in this paper an approach which combines IWRN and territorial development to better incorporate people and place in river basin management. The territory is used as and integrative concept between the bio-physical processes (including water), the knowledge and engineering capacities of the territory (including for water management) and a shared sense of place, of territoriality (including a water component). Developing a territory with an explicit water dimension requires knowledge brokers between top-down technocratic public policies (including water policies) and bottom up development project supported by local population and politicians. Specific STICA (socio-technical information and communication arrangements) can be imagined by these knowledge brockers to bridge the gap between engineers, experts, local people and elected officials. In this paper, we illustrate this approach with a case study located in the South of France, the Thau territory.