Knowledge-based Sustainable Management for Europe's Seas

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A systems approach for sustainable development in coastal zones

Publication . Newton, Alice

This Special Feature of Ecology and Society brings together important outcomes of the EU-funded project: Science-Policy Integration for Coastal System Assessment, SPICOSA. The title of the project revealed its innovative nature from the start. The premise was to bind scientific information to policy decisions and to consider the coastal zone as an integrated ecological-social-economic system. As a result, the SPICOSA project was very broad, ambitious, and required multidisciplinary teams of researchers to work together: natural scientists such as oceanographers and ecologists, social scientists, economists, and modelers. In itself, this was a tour de force. In addition, the project required a participatory role from stakeholders or actors, e.g., institutions, NGOs, economic sectors, etc., as well as from coastal managers and decision makers.

2012Journal article

Open access

Steps toward a shared governance response for achieving good environmental status in the Mediterranean Sea

Publication . Cinnirella, Sergio; Sarda, Rafael; Luis Suarez de Vivero, Juan; Brennan, Ruth; Barausse, Alberto; Icely, John; Luisetti, Tiziana; March, David; Murciano, Carla; Newton, Alice; O'Higgins, Tim; Palmeri, Luca; Palmieri, Maria Giovanna; Raux, Pascal; Rees, Sian; Albaiges, Joan; Pirrone, Nicola; Turner, Kerry

The Mediterranean region is of fundamental importance to Europe given its strategic position. The responsibility for its overall ecosystem integrity is shared by European Union Member States (EU-MS) and other Mediterranean countries. A juxtaposition of overlapping governance instruments occurred recently in the region, with the implementation of both the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) for EU-MS and the Ecosystem Approach Strategy (ECAP) for all Mediterranean countries, including EU-MS. Both MSFD and ECAP are structured around vision-driven processes to achieve Good Environmental Status and a Healthy Environment, respectively. These processes have clear ecosystem-based, integrated policy objectives to guarantee the preservation and integrity of Mediterranean marine ecosystem goods and services. However, adoption of these instruments, especially those related to the new EU-MS directives on marine policy, could result in a governance gap in addition to the well-known economic gap between the EU and the non-EU political blocs. We identify two complementary requirements for effective implementation of both MSFD and ECAP that could work together to reduce this gap, to ensure a better alignment between MSFD and ECAP and better planning for stakeholder engagement. These are key issues for the future success of these instruments in a Mediterranean region where discrepancies between societal and ecological objectives may pose a challenge to these processes.

2014Journal article

Open access

An overview of ecological status, vulnerability and future perspectives of European large shallow, semi-enclosed coastal systems, lagoons and transitional waters

Publication . Newton, Alice; Icely, John; Cristina, Sónia; Brito, Ana; Cardoso, Ana Cristina; Colijn, Franciscus; Riva, Simona Dalla; Gertz, Flemming; Hansen, Jens Würgler; Holmer, Marianne; Ivanova, Kateryna; Leppäkoski, Erkki; Canu, Donata Melaku; Mocenni, Chiara; Mudge, Stephen; Murray, Nicholas; Pejrup, Morten; Razinkovas, Arturas; Reizopoulou, Sofia; Pérez-Ruzafa, Angel; Schernewski, Gerard; Schubert, Hendrik; Carr, Laishalla; Solidoro, Cosimo; PierluigiViaroli, null; Zaldívar, José-Manuel

The paper gives an overview of some of the large, shallow, semi-enclosed coastal systems (SECS) in Europe, These SECS are important both from the ecological and the economic perspective (socioecological systems) and provide many valuable ecosystem goods and services. Although some of the systems are transitional waters under theWater Framework Directive, this is not the case for all of the systems. The paper adopts a Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response approach to analyse the ecological status, vulnerability and future perspectives of these systems in the context of global change.

2014Journal article

Open access