Coastal marine system and estuary functioning is driven by the upstream river basin
Résumé
This chapter illustrates the role of watersheds and estuaries in the biogeochemical functioning of coastal zones, specifically in terms of eutrophication, which is a widespread phenomenon. Along the land–ocean aquatic continuums, estuaries are receptacles of the pollution generated by human activities (e.g., domestic wastewater, agriculture) in watersheds; they can further modify the riverine nutrient delivery before it reaches the marine zone. We present several applications of a chain of modeling tools able to simulate water quality transfers and transformations for a reference situation in a variety of systems to be compared with scenarios involving improvement of domestic wastewater and structural changes in agriculture.