Microbiological Coastal Risks and Monitoring Systems - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 122

3.4.5. Integration of models in the monitoring and alert systems
The integration of the models in monitoring systems constitutes an
aid for public policy on water management and health. Thus, this
information can be integrated in the systems for aiding decisions and
the management of environmental and sanitary risks. The maps for
predicting the risk of the presence of pathogenic agents can be used to
put in place the strategies for adaptation and plans for risk
management.
Combined with predictions for climate evolution, these risk maps
for pathogen presence will enable decision makers to make
projections for the future: will the risk be elevated? Which zones will
be affected? Which are those areas where a particular effort should be
made to reduce the risk of an epidemic?
In themselves, however, these risk maps for the presence of vibrios
or cyanobacteria are already useful information for populations and
professionals living or working on the sea. Workers in aquaculture can
use these predictions to optimize their production management with a
view to bacterial risk throughout the year. Although news bulletins on
water quality for bathing are already available for European citizens,
making new predicative information available several days in advance
could interest those wishing to engage in nautical activities.
In the United States, for example, the Maryland Healthy Beaches
website enables citizens to view information on the evolution of
bacterial risk and on the presence of blooms of algae on the beaches in
Maryland (www.marylandhealthybeaches.com). This information site
is supported by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)
and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene with the
help of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Another example in Europe concerns the monitoring of
developments of cyanobacteria: due to bulletins delivered by the
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, the groups
responsible for taking samples that can be directed as a priority to