Workpackage 5 - Coast & Society

Research aim: Research in shallow waters addresses the missing link between land and open sea. This zone is intensively affected by human uses and faces multiple pressures that are expected to increase in the future. Aim of WP5 is to support the implementation of coastal and marine policy with applied research by i) reassessing the current coastal water monitoring (hypothesis: it is not suited to detect short-term extreme events and needs to be complemented by modelling approaches) by  ii) improving the usability and practical application of the models developed in WP4, and by iii) developing holistic assessment methods for providing a comprehensive view on consequences of uses and for dealing with multiple and cumulative stressors in coastal waters (hypothesis: the current methods do not fully meet the societal and policy demand).

Methods: Analysis of monitoring data provided by the state agencies responsible for the implementation of EU directives and comparison to model data (WP4), cooperation with end-users (yearly meetings, discussion fora, workshops), developing and testing assessment frameworks with European research partners (complementary projects).

Some first results: