L'évaluation de la qualité écologique d'un cours d'eau

Assessing the ecological quality of a waterway

Abstract

Appreciation of the quality of a waterway is too often restricted to the chemical quality of the water in it, i.e. its level ofchemical, organic and toxic pollution. However the ecological quality of a waterway also depends on the physical perturbations which directly affect habitation possibilities for communities and directly or indirectly, the quality of the water (automatic purification for example). Gentle development of rivers and tributaries must, therefore, be particularly attentive ta this type of perturbation.