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Combine tools for environmental prediction and state of the St. Lawrence monitoring and apply them to mapping the water quality of Lac Saint-Pierre

Combine tools for environmental prediction and state of the St. Lawrence monitoring and apply them to mapping the water quality of Lake Saint-Pierre

Context and project description

Environment and Climate Change Canada and Quebec’s Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques generate an abundance of environmental data on the St. Lawrence as part of the Numerical Environmental Prediction and Monitoring the State of the St. Lawrence programs. By combining the prediction tools with the water quality data taken from the St. Lawrence, we hope to produce information (data, maps and indicators) that reflect the state of the contamination of Lake Saint-Pierre by pesticides.

This widening of the river upstream from Trois-Rivières contains extraordinary biodiversity, but the ecosystem is also under strong pressures, specifically due to the intensive agriculture that is practiced in the entire watershed. This makes it important to monitor it closely with the most complete and up-to-date information. The entire project will therefore consist of combining the historical data with a complete set of new data from recent and future samples, in both the lake and the tributaries. Significant work to compile, validate, calibrate, transfer and integrate will follow.

Results

The work carried out in this project made it possible to refine and optimize the hydrodynamic model of Lake Saint-Pierre. After the project got under way, it was refocused on modelling of water masses (French only) rather than pesticide contamination. In the near future, it will be possible to model the water masses in Lake Saint-Pierre on a daily basis.

Participating departments

Government of Canada

  • Environment and Climate Change Canada

Government of Quebec

  • Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques