Designing a concept for the cumulative assessment of anthropogenic stress

Project partner

AquaEcology GmbH

Short description

An ecosystematic assessment of the marine environment is being conducted within the framework of the German marine protection policy (Meeresstrategie-Rahmenrichtlinie, MSRL). Several R&D projects designed and compiled some of the necessary components in order to achieve such an overall assessment. The aim of these already completed projects was to initially assess and to describe good environmental conditions for biological properties with regard to the criteria and indicators specified by the European Commission since September 2010. Existing assessment methods in accordance with the Water Framework Directive (WRRL), Fauna and flora directive (FFH-Richtlinie), OSPAR and the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HEL-COM) were used as a basis. A variety of cumulative effects within and between different components and stress factors needs to be considered in order to design a procedure that can inclusively assess an ecosystem. The goal of these R&D projects was therefore to design a concept for the cumulative assessment of anthropogenic stress. The practicability was tested using existing datasets. Furthermore, the developed assessments for each single descriptor were integrated into an overall assessment process according to the MSRL framework.

Benjamin Burkhard completed this project at the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel.