With fifty kilometers of coastline, tens of beaches and coves, two million bathers each year, the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropole and the city of Marseille must ensure that their inhabitants and the tourists alike are able to enjoy a seaside that is being preserved and protected. Having made it a priority, the Metropole improves and develops this environment to make it an attractive urban quality of life asset.
Central missions
Expanding its mission by developing fauna and flora preservation solutions.
Permanent monitoring of the sanitation system to ensure that no dysfunction affects the bathing water quality.
COASTLINE AND BIODIVERSITY
PROTECTIVE SOLUTIONS
SERAMM monitors the bathing water quality
as a precious asset for the communities.
More than 98% of the beaches are open to bathing each year during the summer season, a period during which the tourist attendance is the highest and the local population seeks relief from the high summer temperatures. To protect its tourist coast, the City of Marseille runs regular analyses, under the control of the Regional Health Agency, to check the quality of the bathing water of its 21 beaches. Today, owing to the GenSpot analytical method implemented by SERAMM/SUEZ, the City is able, within 3 hours, to ascertain and confirm that a beach can be opened or closed to bathing.
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The City of Marseille has the sea water samples delivered to the SERAMM laboratory
The City of Marseille has the sea water samples delivered to the SERAMM laboratory
The sea water samples are analysed using the GenSpot molecular biology method.
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The analysis results are transmitted to the City of Marseille to aid in the beach opening decision making process.
The analysis results are transmitted to the City of Marseille to aid in the beach opening decision making process.
HOW DOES IT WORK?Zooming in on the bathing water quality
The revitalisation process of the Mediterranean
coastline marine biodiversity
SERAMM is involved in the regeneration of the marine fauna and flora which suffered decade-long degradation caused by years of urban growth along the coastline. Here again, SERAMM is active on land and at sea to protect and preserve the most fragile environments.
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Gen Spot
Gen Spot
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Beest
In only 3h, the GenSpot method makes it possible to analyse the bathing water and provide reliable results. SERAMM supports the City decision making process for the opening/closing of the beaches.
Beest
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Eve
On the rocky coastal areas, the "Re-Cyst" project concerns the development of a method designed to reintroduce the local "Cystoseiras" algae population.
Eve
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Sirène
a wide maintenance plan has been implemented that includes the 80 rivers and streams running through the city in order to restore their hydraulic characteristics and ensure that their flows remain unencumbered by solid waste. This plan also concerns the ecological rehabilitation of the river banks to protect the existing habitats.
Sirène
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Aquadvanced
Aquadvanced
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Bionurse
Modelises the pollutant discharges into the sea caused by rain events.
Bionurse
In the ports, fish juvenile nurseries are being introduced to compensate for the seabed damages caused by the ports’ facility development. Today, the juvenile fish populations have tripled along the quays of the Pointe Rouge facilities.
HOW DOES IT WORK?Zooming in on the marine biodiversity
preservation solutions
preservation solutions
The land-marine impacts better understood today
From the shores to the deepest seabed of the Mediterranean sea human activities have left lasting traces on the environement. "Beest" is a scientific study carried out by SERAMM and several partners to assess the impacts of 150 years of human activities on the quality of the coastal water and on the biodiversity. This is a valuable support for the collectivity during development projects to assess the positive and negative environmental impacts such projects could entail and the methods to manage them.
