Numerous studies in science education, environmental education and sustainable development education have identified expressions of fatalism and disengagement among young people facing the ongoing environmental crisis. Yet we know that to engage youth in school and as citizens, one must take into account their social identity, their projects and further connect teaching practices and examples to the places they live in. Relying on sustainable development (SD) principles and in order to properly address the concerns of young people from different cultures living there, this research in intercultural environmental and sustainable development education (EIEDD) proposes to develop an innovative, comparative theoretical framework in order to analyse how 16 year old persons envisage SD issues linked to the river nearby. Four case studies will be conducted in very different cultural and environmental contexts. Data will be collected through questionnaires (N = 300) and individual interviews (N = 100). The aim is to characterize a number of "portraits types" of young persons describing their relationships to scientific knowledge and territories, and their dispositions and citizen practices with respect to social, political, economic, ethical or ecological issues they associate with SD of their neighboring river. Two case studies will be conducted in Quebec and two will be done in France. In each of these contexts, the first case study shall imply young people living in a multicultural area while the second will focus on young people from rural areas whose governance is guided by sustainable development principles, in order to identify common cultural elements or contrasts, more or less globalized, in France and Quebec, in a comparative way. The selected zones are the Seine River in France and the St.Lawrence River in Quebec, pursuing ongoing researchs made by the co-directors of this project. Secondly, young people interviewed will develop an interdisciplinary representation of the main issues they link with SD of the nearby river and will suggest citizen initiatives with the support of teachers of science and historyor geography, with actors involved in the area and members of the research team. These interdisciplinary representations and eco-citizen actions will be co-developed and disseminated in virtual ways within the four cultural contexts concerned.