Three "transfer" engineer positions co-financed by the LabEx COTE every year

Review of the Gironde estuary white paper and creation of a collaborative management/research platform (EPOC/SMIDDEST)

The public and private Estuary managers (Local Water Commission, SMIDDEST, the State and its public institutions (Adour-Garonne Water Agency, the Coastal Conservatory, ONEMA - the French National Agency for Water and Aquatic Environments…), General Councils of the French departments 33 and 17, the Atlantic Port of Bordeaux, EDF Nuclear power plant of the Blayais region…) need to have easy access to the nature of the work, research and studies that have been carried out or are under development on the territory, the methodologies used, by whom, on what areas, and the main results. They also need to be directly involved in the prefiguration of research programs and in the exploitation of results. The questions raised in the context of the Estuary SAGE (Water Development and Management Scheme) require a strong collaboration between managers and experts. This collaboration would make it possible to target and optimize the work to be carried out with a focus on prioritization and cost effectiveness. The SAGE Local Water Commission must have decision-making tools directly based on the research conducted on the Estuary.

The scientists and the experts also need to be able to accurately access this information in order to facilitate the sharing of resources, methodologies and data when needed in the context of the necessary development of integrated approaches. This could also boost the dynamics of the work through the exchange of information, the sharing of lessons learned and the integration of common issues.

The professional structures, associations and general public are also becoming more and more interested in knowing about the work underway and the state of the environment hence the need to popularize certain elements.

In this context, the establishment of a collaborative environmental research organization and coordination with the managers of the Gironde Estuary is necessary. This general objective will need to be ongoing. The drafting of an overview of the current state of the site and a joint diagnosis of the estuary environmental issues (White Paper update) is the first step of the approach, which can subsequently be used for revising the Estuary SAGE and henceforth for targeting the priority actions for its implementation. This work will lead to the creation of sub-tools such as an environmental science resource platform (metadata and documents) for the Gironde estuary which will create a strong link between all the water stakeholders and develop a decision-making tool in the context of the SAGE.

The purpose of this approach is to ensure the sustainability of the dynamics so that the work carried out may be upgradeable and ongoing, thus enabling scientists and experts to share and exchange durably on their work and managers to focus their actions on priority issues. The orientation of the research in relation to the needs of the environment can then be optimized.

The implementation of this project requires a staff of facilitators. The review of the white paper and the compilation of information are estimated to last two years. Later in this document, the major tasks of the facilitator’s position planned for the first year are described.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the waters of the Arcachon basin – synthesis of available data and source assessment. (EPOC/SIBA)

• · Description: In the interests of joint management of the territory, it seems necessary in the light of (1) the large amount of data available and (2) the context of increasing contamination of the oysters of the Arcachon basin (Auby et. al 2013)1 to achieve: 

- A global overview of the current state of the PAH (POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS) data produced during the past 20 years (biota, sediment, water column, atmosphere etc.) 

- A review of the potential sources of these PAHs (retrospective analysis of these sources, quantification, prioritization and predictive scenarios) 

- A review of the avenues of potential management for the future and recommendations relating to the monitoring of the environment. 

• · Objectives/Deliverables: drafting of a comprehensive technical report, a provisional synthetic report and a very synthetic report for managers that can be used as a model for further thought for a joint management of the territory with regard to the PAH issues of the Arcachon basin. 
• · Directors of this study : 

- LabEx COTE / Univ. Bordeaux: Hélène Budzinski (Director of the LPTC and co-director of LabEx COTE) 

- SIBA (Arcachon Bay Intercommunal Union): Sabine Jeandenand (SIBA Director of services) 

• · Partners and stakeholders:  

- LabEx COTE: Claire Gouny - Transfer and Valorization Manager

- Regional Committee of the shellfish industry (CRC) 

• Aurélie  Lecanu - Director 
• Glady King-Wan – Project Manager for the Oyster-Farming Sanitation Group (GDSO) 

- SIBA (Arcachon Bay Intercommunal Union): Adeline Thevand - Environment Engineer 

-  Adour-Garonne Water Agency (AEAG): Mélina Lamouroux - Coastline Project Manager

- Ifremer Arcachon: 

§ Hélène Oger-Jeanneret - Laboratory Manager 

§ Isabelle Auby – Assistant Manager of the laboratory 

§ Laure Gouriou – ROCCH (Chemical Contamination Observation Network) correspondent 

§ Gilles Truts - DCE (Water Framework Directive) correspondent for the Adour-Garonne Water Agency

§ Danièle Maurer - Researcher (shellfish/modeling) 

§ Florian Ganthy - Researcher (modeling / coastal env.) 

1 Auby Isabelle, Truts Gilles, Gouriou Laure, Oger-Jeanneret Hélène, 2013. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in oysters of the Arcachon bay. Comparison with the levels measured in the other bodies of water within the Adour Garonne bay. Reflections based on the exploitation of RNO (National Observation Network), ROCCH (Chemical Contamination Observation Network), and DCE (Water Framework Directive) data.