Marine management--towards an integrated implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework and the Water Framework Directives.
Through implementing environmental Directives, Europe has moved towards coordinated and integrated catchment-to-coast management, following the most novel legislation on ecosystem-based approaches worldwide. The novel joint synthesis of this direction reviewed here allows us to regard the Water Framework Directive (WFD) as a 'deconstructing structural approach' whereas the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a 'holistic functional approach', i.e. the WFD has split the ecosystem into several biological quality elements, then it compares the structure of these (such as species complement) individually before combining them and attempting to determine the overall condition. In contrast the MSFD concentrates on the set of 11 descriptors which together summarize the way in which the whole system functions. We emphasize that both Directives are frameworks on which many other directives are linked but that they need to be fully and seamlessly integrated to give a land to open sea system of assessment and management. Hence, by taking account of the experience gained in the WFD implementation, together with that from regional sea conventions, such as OSPAR (North East Atlantic) or HELCOM (Baltic Sea), we propose in this contribution an integrative approach for the environmental status assessment, within the MSFD.
AZTI-Tecnalia, Marine Research Division, Herrera Kaia, Portualdea s/n, 20110 Pasaia, Spain. aborja@pas.azti.es
Angel
A
Borja
Mike
M
Elliott
Jacob
J
Carstensen
Anna-Stiina
AS
Heiskanen
Wouter
W
van de Bund
D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D058735:Environmental Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005062:European Union; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D018511:Systems Integration; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control*