Ecosystem Service Assessments within the EU Water Framework Directive: Marine Mussel Cultivation as a Controversial Measure

Abstract

To combat the persistent eutrophication in coastal waters, sustainable sea-based measures are recommended. Yet, they are the subject of controversial stakeholder discussion, which hampers the implementation and planning process. The aim of this study is to evaluate if a participatory mapping (PM) approach and ecosystem service assessments (ESA) can be suitable tools within Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation to support the communication with different target groups to improve and accelerate the planning and realization of new sea-based mitigation measures. We conducted three stakeholder-based PMs to visualize the perception of sea-based mitigation measures in coastal waters and seven different ESAs to investigate the perceptions of different mussel cultivation scenarios as mitigation measures. The PMs showed that ecological measures were preferred. The ESA approach showed that, while experts rated mussel cultivation scenarios positively overall, non-expert stakeholders still seemed skeptical and preferred alternative measures like floating wetlands. The methodological results indicate that PM can be a cost-effective tool to visualize stakeholders’ perceptions, but it needs to be applied with an ESA to be beneficial for the WFD implementation process. A web-based ESA improves the discussion with stakeholders and can reveal potential misperceptions and concerns faster and lead to a more focused discussion.

Assessment of Ecosystem Services Provided by Macrophytes in Southern Baltic and Southern Mediterranean Coastal Lagoons

“…than marine areas (e.g., Farella et al 2020 ). Scenario assessment appeared to be a successful tool to start discussions among participants supporting decision-making processes, e.g., for marine mussel cultivation (Ritzenhofen et al 2022 ). As shown by Schernewski et al ( 2019 ), this approach can be applied to assess the implementation of EU policies, for example, the measure of WFD to achieve a GES.…”

Research progress on “ecological flow”: CiteSpace analysis based on Web of Science Core Collection

“…In the 1980s, other countries, such as the European Union and Australia, initiated studies related to ecological flows successively. In 2000, the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) was enacted (Nikolaidis et al, 2022;Ritzenhofen, Schumacher, Karstens, & Schernewski, 2022). In 2015, the United Nations adopted Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), which identifies maintaining the health of ecosystems as one of the key measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Imaz & Sheinbaum, 2017;Lisitza & Wolbring, 2016; A. J.…”

Indications from C:N:P Ratios in Surface Sediments along Land-to-Sea Gradients to Support Coastal Nutrient Management

“…For coastal waters, sea-based mitigation measures (also known as an 'end-of-pipe solution') have been actively debated in recent years, e.g., [57][58][59]. Sea-based mitigation measures are usually differentiated into hydrological engineering (e.g., manipulating water residence time), geoengineering (e.g., aluminum injections in sediments) and ecological engineering (e.g., mussel, algae or macrophyte culture) [60].…”