Achieving Good Environmental Status by Assessing Impacts of Cumulative Pressures

Background and Objective

Coastal and marine waters are vital for the natural balance of our planet and for human societies. All coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services heavily depend on the level of human and environmental pressures and their cumulative effects. Despite ongoing political and societal efforts to achieve a Good Environmental Status in European waters, a growing demand for goods and services from the seas will likely increase maritime activities and their cumulative pressures.

The GES4SEAS project will develop and test an innovative and flexible toolbox to assess the effects of those cumulative pressures on the environmental status and service provisioning of marine ecosystems. Through the toolbox, GES4SEAS aims to ensure the achievement of the Good Environmental Status and supports policies at national, European, and global levels.

Target Group

Broader public

Policy makers and experts

Academia

Approach

The GES4SEAS toolbox will combine different tools for analyzing, assessing, and mapping cumulative pressures, the Good Environmental Status, and ecosystem services under a changing climate. The toolbox will be validated, harmonized, and demonstrated at different scales, using 11 learning sites across the EU regional seas and the Caribbean Sea.

At the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, we support the project by applying and adapting the toolbox to the European case studies and synthesizing the findings, experiences, and knowledge. Further, we identify a set of essential ocean/biodiversity variables (EOV/EBVs) and their critical thresholds which need to be monitored to safeguard the provisioning of ecosystem functions and services.

Data and Methods

Within an iterative process, the toolbox will be created with partners and key stakeholders with high expertise in different methods, tools, and scientific approaches. This assures the integration of stakeholder needs in terms of reporting and decision support for different policies, captures local and sub-regional specificities, and produces a practical and accessible ecosystem-based approach guidance to achieve a Good Environmental Status.

Our Research Questions

How to inform marine governance processes in minimizing human impacts on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, while maintaining the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services?

Which management measures can facilitate achieving a good environmental status?

Links and Downloads

www.ges4seas.eu