![]() Water levels have been monitored continuously within the lagoons and on each side of the sea wall (Fig. The lagoons store a total volume of about 163 10 6 m 3 when the water level rises to 0.5 m (a.m.s.l). When the water level in the Vaccares lagoon is at 0 m (a.m.s.l), the total area and volume of the lagoons are respectively 110 km 2 and 108 10 6 m 3. The lagoons are isolated from the surrounding salinas and salt works by an embankment. The lower lagoons can be divided into two sub units: “Etang de l’Imperial” and “Etang du Lion” (EI and EL in Fig. The geometry of the lagoon system is complex it can be divided in two sub systems: the Vaccares lagoon and the lower lagoons that are connected directly to the Mediterranean. The area includes flat agricultural drainage basins, marshes and shallow brackish lagoons whose connection to the sea is managed (Fig. A high embankment protects the basin from the floods of the River Rhone and from sea storms. The ‘Ile de Camargue hydrosystem is located in the Rhone delta, between the two branches of the river. The model reproduces the temporal evolution of water levels and salinities in the lagoons under the combined effects of climatic and human forcings. Physical processes are introduced in the model conceptually and human influences are seen as the forcing variables. This paper develops a model to simulate the water cycle within the whole ‘Ile de Camargue’ hydrosystem, including the basin and the lagoons and is focussed on the calibration. Moreover, within the lagoons, water flows result from the combined effects of natural processes and human actions that control exchange with the sea. Surface water flows within the basin are not only induced by rainfall but are also forced by the drainage of irrigated rice fields. The great complexity of the ‘Ile de Camargue makes the analysis of the hydrological behaviour of the system a difficult task. Nevertheless, this tool is neither designed nor used as a deterministic model to predict values with operationally acceptable spatial and temporal accuracy because of the crude approach to the physical processes. ![]() ![]() The work highlighted the advantages of such an integrated simulator to study alternative scenarios of economic development in the agricultural basin that are compatible with the ecological conservation of the lagoon. Franchesquin (2001) developed such an approach to describe the water cycle through the ‘Ile de Camargue’ hydrosystem. Multi-agent modelling is a promising way to describe the relationships linking water management and socio-economic processes (Barreteau and Bousquet, 2000). (1998) developed a DSS that integrates a hydrological and hydrodynamic model for water inflows to the Venice lagoon (, but it remains a difficult task to deal with salt or nutrients balance in a coastal wetland (Gordon et al. The main step in the development of a DSS consists in linking hydrological processes and behavioural rules of ‘actors’ in a simple but dynamic representation of the hydrosystem defined as a complex system (Giraud et al. However, methodological questions about the development and structure of operational DSS, still remain unanswered (Mysiak et al.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |