Transnational modelling of the Meuse District with PegOpera simulation software

The environmental software PEGOPERA is a new tool resulting from the coupling of the PEGASE model (Planification Et Gestion de l’ASsainissement des Eaux, French acronym for planning and management of water purification) with a friendly Graphical User Interface. PEGASE is an integrated and physically based river/basin model and is devoted to the characterisation of the physico-chemical state of surface water, at the scale of a whole watershed or basin, including International River Basin District (IRBD). The aim of the model is to simulate non stationary scenarios at various scales (from a few km² to hundreds of thousands km²) while handling the entire river tree (hundreds to thousands of water bodies). The purpose of PEGOPERA is to provide the stakeholders - as regards to surface water management - with a tool dedicated to the deterministic calculation of water quality of the rivers taking into account pollutant loads and discharges. In the context of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, the international coordination between neighbouring states and regions is required. The PEGOPERA software is adapted to simulate the IRBD Meuse. Indeed: i. An integrated transnational database relevant to the entire district is available; ii. The software is operational: the Meuse application has been calibrated and validated independently on most of regional sub-basins of the district; iii. The software could be used to simulate historical and future scenarios to assess water quality improvement that may be expected after applying basic and supplementary measures. The results demonstrate the relevance of the use of this software in this kind of transnational modelling. Some regions of the International District of the Meuse are validated on historical situations. Other parts still need to be improved in terms of consolidating the input databases. Prospective scenarios implementing measures from the WFD are carried out at this District scale

Modelling community structure in freshwater ecosystems

The book presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. Such an approach will make it possible to: 1) set up procedures for robust and sensitive ecosystem evaluation, based on the prediction of the expected community structure; 2) model community structure in disturbed ecosystems, taking into account all the relevant ecological variables; 3) test ecosystem sensitivity to natural and anthropic disturbance; and 4) explore specific actions to be taken for the restoration of ecosystem integrity