Managing the microbiological

contamination of the Thau lagoon

SPICOSA study site SSA13 Thau lagoon
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

J. Ballé-Béganton1, T. Laugier2, V. Derolez2, A. Fiandrino2,

M. Lample5, R. Mongruel1, J. A. Pérez Agúndez1, A. Vanhoutte-Brunier1,
H. Rey-Valette3, F. Valette3 and G. Brocard4
SSA13 Thau lagoon

1
Ifremer, UMR Amure, Marine Economics Departement, BP70 F-29280 Plouzané
2
Ifremer, LER-LR, Environmental and Resource Laboratory, BP171 F-34203 Sète cedex
3
LAMETA, Université de Montpellier 1,C.S. 79606 F-34960 Montpellier cedex 2
4
SMBT, Syndicat Mixte du Bassin de Thau, Route de Sète, BP18 F-34540 Balaruc les Bains
5
UBO, UMR Amure, Marine Economics Departement, BP70 F-29280 Plouzané
 The Thau lagoon microbiological issue

SSA13
The Thau Lagoon
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

►Microbiological contamination
SSA13 Thau lagoon

The lagoon sees its water quality strongly

impacted by a rapid demographic growth and by
an important seasonal influx due to tourism and
failures in the water treatment system,
leading to commercial bans for the shell fish
farming activity.
 Local Management of the area

► Territorial Management Plan SCoT

The local policy framework, which has been set up during the
preparation of the SCoT defines the general objectives of Thau
lagoon management :
 Economic development, including tourism and thermalism
 Environment preservation, including water quality and
ecosystems protection
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

 Maintaining the cultural patrimony, including traditional

activities (shellfish farming, fisheries activities in the lagoon,
recreational activities).
SSA13 Thau lagoon

► Local Water Management Plan SAGE

The SAGE defines several specific objectives related to the
environment policy. One specific objective is the reduction of
microbiological contamination.
 Stakeholder Involvement and Policy issue of the Thau Lagoon study site

Science Managers
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010
SSA13 Thau lagoon

► How and how far mitigate the microbiological contamination of

the Thau Lagoon, taking into account local development needs ?

► How can this objective of contamination mitigation can be

translated into operational management options ?
 Stakeholder Involvement and Policy issue of the Thau Lagoon study site

► What technical improvement of the water treatment system

should be made in priority with the objective of:

 Lagoon sanitary classification A with an allowed number of commercial bans

 Lagoon sanitary classification B with no commercial bans

 Lagoon sanitary classification B with an allowed number of commercial bans

and what would be the cost ?

LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

OMEGA-THAU

Assessment and hierarchy of An integrated view and

SSA13 Thau lagoon

contamination sources and model with the water

their impact on the lagoon, treatment system imbedded
and estimate the cost of in the regional economy and
improving their treatment. impact analysis to the
shellfish farming industry.
 A system view of microbiological contamination of the lagoon

External MEPP model

Climate: Population Regional +

rain & wind economy
+
+ +
contamination Water policy:
sources quality improvement
-technical options lagoon
- -operational objectives reputation
water
treatment + - +
system lagoon sanitary shellfish
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

efficiency classification farming

- -
-
+ recreative
+ microbiological + bans of activities
contamination shellfish sales
-
SSA13 Thau lagoon

+ closures of
beaches
Relationships depending on
strategic decisions of local
The model is built to explore the ecological and economic impacts of different managers
combinations of technical options and operational objectives. The strategic
decisions made by local managers should reflect social preferences.
 The ExtendSim model

► The model was developed using ExtendSim modelling software and

following a top-down Ecological-Social-Economical analysis.
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010
SSA13 Thau lagoon
 Watershed E.coli sources, flux treatment and transfer
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

► The model uses the detailed

database from the OMEGA-THAU
Thau lagoon
assessment to simulate for 19
SSA13 Thau lagoon

E.Coli fluxes sub-catchments :

at watershed
outlets • the watershed E.coli sources
• their treatment
• their outlet fluxes in the lagoon
 Microbiological contamination of the lagoon

►In the Thau lagoon, the IFREMER 3D

hydrodynamic model MARS (Model for
Applications at Regional Scale) has been
coupled to a biological model simulating
the transport, dispersion and mortality of
E.Coli cells in the lagoon waters.

►This model has been used to simulate

the impact of E.Coli load discharge into
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

the lagoon by each local stream for

specific rain events. Calibration and 100 m x 100 m grid Low S-SE winds
validation of this 3D model has been 10  level along vertical
direction
achieved in the framework of the

Water flow - Pallas (m3/s)

OMEGA-THAU project. 25
SSA13 Thau lagoon

O N 20 E.Coli load from a rain event

E C = 1913*[E.coli].100mL-1
S 15

10 Flux = Q * C

0
0 5 10 15 20 25

hour

Fiandrino, A., Martin,Y., Got, P., Bonnefont, J.L., Troussellier, M., Bacterial contamination of
Mediterranean coastal seawater as affected by riverine inputs: simulation approach applied
to a shellfish breeding area (Thau lagoon, France). Water Research, 37, 1711- 1722, 2003
 Microbiological contamination of the lagoon

► The contribution of watershed outlets

fluxes to microbiological concentration
are additive and allowed us to use
transport functions to simulate the
impact of E.coli discharge at each REMI
monitoring station.

Daily E.coli load from each

watershed outlet
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

25
E.Coli load from a rain

Water flow
event
20

15

10

0
SSA13 Thau lagoon

0 5 10 15 20 25

hour

[E.coli] concentration at REMI

monitoring Station

For a fixed wind condition and a fixed meteorological

condition, the transfer function depends on 4 parameters
 Monitoring and commercial bans regulation

► The lagoon sanitary

classification (currently B) gives
the allowed E.Coli concentration
thresholds at defined monitoring
stations.
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

► For various lagoon sanitary

classifications (A or B), the model
simulates the occurrence of
commercial bans according to the
SSA13 Thau lagoon

different water treatment

scenarios planned by local
agencies.
 Shellfish farming vulnerability
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

► The model calculates two economic indicators for shellfish

farms:

● The global revenue losses of companies potentially impacted by

SSA13 Thau lagoon

commercial bans.
● The distribution of companies depending on their degree of
vulnerability to commercial closures. Vulnerability is a multi-factorial
status, which refers to the whole different shocks than individuals
may support depending on exposure, sensibility and coping
capacity.
 Regional economy

► The regional economy dynamics

is represented using the outputs of
a Prospective Macro-Economic
Model (MEPP) developed by the
LAMETA under the Excel®
software.

Interactive use : calibration of Specification of demographic scenarios

successive complex 5-years scenarios according to the evolution of the regional
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

economy: successive 5 years runs

MEPP

Shellfish farming development

Forcing variables and environmental amenities,
MEPP-EXTEND
according the most efficient
into EXTEND INTERFACE
water treatment systems
SSA13 Thau lagoon

EXTEND

Population

Partially constrained
trajectory of the
forcing variables

0 5 years 10 years 15 years 20 years

 Model status today

External MEPP model

Climate: Population Regional +

rain & wind economy
+
+ +
contamination Water policy:
sources quality improvement
-technical options lagoon
- -operational objectives reputation
water
treatment + - +
system lagoon sanitary shellfish
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

efficiency classification farming

- -
-
+ recreative
+ microbiological + bans of activities
contamination shellfish sales
-
SSA13 Thau lagoon

+ closures of
beaches
Relationships depending on
strategic decisions of local
managers
 Stakeholder Feedbacks

OMEGA-THAU

Assessment and hierarchy of The managers expect from

contamination sources and the SPICOSA project a
their impact on the lagoon, decision support tool to test
and estimate the cost of the various options
improving their treatment. diagnosed by OMEGA Thau.
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

Stakeholder feedback : This demands a highly

The cost to reach the complex modelling tool to
objectives are not test the cost/efficiency of all
sustainable for the policy the possible technical
SSA13 Thau lagoon

makers. The project gives a options at the detailed scale

better view of priorities but of towns and counties.
does not offer a tool to test
the necessary compromises.
 System Approach Framework Process

A first SPICOSA SAF cycle has To answer broader concerns

been run. The SPICOSA-Thau of local water management
experiment has built the basis of an bodies, the next cycle consists in:
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010

integrated model that simulates the actual ● developing a tool able to test
contamination and commercial bans in the new water treatment options
lagoon and their short-terms impacts. also for other pollution sources

However, it does not supply the local ● integrating the dynamics of shellfish
planning agencies with a complete farming industry and regional
decision support-tool for water economy in order to reconcile
SSA13 Thau lagoon

treatment management. the SAGE and SCoT

E-S-E objectives.
 In conclusion …

► In the Thau lagoon study site, the dynamics of the lagoon allowed us to build
Thank you for your attention
and use transfer function in the integrated Ecological-Social-Economical model.

► But what if….

Opened question : Integrated model versus model integration
LITTORAL 2010 – London, 21-23/09/2010
SSA13 Thau lagoon

SPICOSA
www.spicosa.eu
Johanna Ballé-Béganton
Johanna.Beganton@ifremer.fr
Rémi Mongruel
Remi.Mongruel@ifremer.fr