MAGEST : Surveillance en continu pour la connaissance de la qualité des eaux de l'estuaire de la Gironde

Metallic and organic contaminations, urban waste waters decrease the Gironde estuary water quality and disoxygenation periods used to be observed in the fluvial part. The Maximum Turbidity Zone comportment, depending from hydrodynamic and morphodynamic processes, is also a major controlling factor for water quality determination. Since 2004, the MAGEST network allows high frequency monitoring for water temperature, salinity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. The MAGEST network’s technical features had to be adapted to the macrotidal environment and to high salinity and turbidity gradients. Tidal cycles up to seasonal cycles are now fully documented.