Introduction

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The STARDUST II project started in September 2005, the end date is December 2007. The aimed objectives in the second stage follow these presented in the first phase of the program. They are mainly related to the influence of polluted sediment on the quality of fluvial and estuarine waters. The STARDUST I website is still online, click here.

These pollutants, which were stored in the course of time in our fluvial sediments, form a 'time bomb' that could burst at an even small modification in the environment (modification of PH-content, oxygen concentration, bioturbation, rising of the water level, voluntary release of sediments while dredging or during adaptation activities).

The main objective of this study is to contribute to a better knowledge of the behaviour of pollutants in the sedimentary compartment, hereby further strengthening a cross border technology transfer and further finalising a predicting tool that can contribute to good decision making (modelling). The impact of the programme, other than common scientific publications, concerns:

• The development of an online data system (ICT development), that will be available for the scientific community, as well as to actors in the field from both countries, as pollution has no borders
• Sharing our competences (in technical, scientific and pedagogical terms) within the framework of a federative structure.