| Summary: | For the last 150 years, multiple human interventions (dredging, dredging deposit, regularization works, ice control and so forth) have transformed the Lake Saint-Pierre topography. Although it is certainly significant, the impact of these works on its physics, such as water levels and water flows, and on its biota (fauna and flora), is still unknown. The spatial and the temporal distribution of the work carried out in Lake Saint-Pierre since 1844 have been reconstituted from several archived documents. The location of successive dredging and that of their related deposit zones are shown in details in a Geographical Information System (GIS). The digitization of ancient topographic data and the knowledge of some modified zones have allowed us to reconstitute the shape of the Lake Saint-Pierre as it was during pre-industrial period. The accurate knowledge of the evolution of the Lake Saint-Pierre, and ultimately of the St. Lawrence River, is a crucial factor in the distinction of natural changes from confusing human intervention factors. This will make possible the establishment of reliable predictive models that aim to evaluate the potential impacts of the climatic changes on the St. Lawrence River ecosystem.
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