Baltic Marine Environment
Protection Commission

 

Baltic Marine Environment
Protection Commission

Ongoing (26)
Finished (59)

SPICE

Implementation and development of key components for the assessment of Status, Pressures and Impacts, and Social and Economic evaluation in the Baltic Sea marine region (2017)

SPICE is a HELCOM coordinated project that is co-financed by the EU. The project is designed to contribute directly to the finalization of the ‘Second HELCOM Holistic Assessment of Ecosystem Health in the Baltic Sea ‘ that is carried out by HELCOM through the HELCOM HOLAS II project.

The assessment will cover the whole Baltic Sea marine region and will provide information on the overall environmental status of and pressures on the Baltic Sea as well as social and economic aspects that are linked to the status of the Sea and the human activities impacting upon it.

The assessment is developed to follow-up the goals and objectives agreed by all coastal countries and EU in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) as well as to be used for the 2018 reporting under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) as agreed by those Contracting Parties of the Helsinki Convention that are also EU Member States.

The SPICE project will specifically contribute to:

  • Theme 1: finalizing and quality assure the thematic assessments on biodiversity, eutrophication, hazardous substances as well as pressures and impacts and support the final collation of data and the visual presentation of results,
  • Theme 2: developing marine litter indicators towards operationalization and prepare a proposal for the assessment of marine litter in the 2nd holistic assessment,
  • Theme 3: further developing and implementing the economic and social analyses at the Baltic Sea regional scale,
  • Theme 4: developing guidelines for assessments of cumulative impacts and thresholds related to pelagic and seabed habitats.

Dedicated workshops will be organized for experts from HELCOM countries as well as other Regional Seas Conventions to take part in the development and testing of the project components.

The project will be carried out in 2017 by HELCOM and the five additional partners: Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM), University of Tartu, Estonia (EMI), Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) and Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre, Estonia (SEI Tallinn).

Project deliverables

SPICE final summary reportDownload

Theme 1:

1.3.1 – Design of the assessment web pages, for the purpose of building interest and presenting the assessment resultsDownload
1.3.2 – Design and creation of high-quality visualizations of the main resultsDownload
1.3.3 – Visual outlook for figures (both print and online)Download
1.3.4.a – Interactive web-based chart/figure tool; as well as the design of summary publications of the results, released both print and onlineDownload

Theme 2:

2.1.1a – Development of baselines of marine litter – Report on the analysis of compiled beach litter data and proposals for setting preliminary beach litter baselines in the Baltic SeaDownload
2.1.1b – Development of baselines of marine litter – Identification of top litter items in the Baltic Sea regionDownload
2.1.2 – Development of baselines of marine litter – Litter on the seafloor in the HELCOM area- analyses of data from BITS trawling hauls 2012-2016Download
2.1.3 – Development of baselines of marine litter – Report on the analysis of compiled data on microlitter in the Baltic SeaDownload
2.3.1 – Regional database for beach litter and micro litterDownload

Theme 3:

3.1.3 – Developing the ecosystem service approach in the ESA frameworkDownload
3.1.4 – Recommendations on regional economic and social analyses for European marine areasDownload
3.2 – Development of a regional “business-as-usual” scenario (BAU) to be used as a baseline in the integrated assessment of the marine environmentDownload
3.3 – Developing tools towards integrated assessment of the marine environmentDownload

Theme 4:

4.1.1 – A step-wise method guideline for carrying out a technical assessment of the lost, disturbed and adversely affected area (km2) of benthic and pelagic habitat types from different activitiesDownload
4.1.2 – A practical guidance how different hierarchical levels of habitats (e.g. broader and more-detailed HELCOM underwater biotopes) can be tackled within the same assessmentDownload
4.2.1 – Definition of adversely affected habitatsDownload
4.2.2 – Spatial data layers with realistic extent estimates of lost and disturbed habitatsDownload
4.2.3 – Cross-comparison of environmental assessments and pressuresDownload
4.2.4 – Test thresholds for an assessment of habitatsDownload
4.2.5 – Propose how the thresholds can be applied for the development of environmental targets affecting seabed habitatsDownload

For more information, please contact: ​

Mock Employee
Jannica Haldin

Professional Secretary
(Gear WG, State and Conservation WG)
Jannica.Haldin@helcom.fi
Tel: +358 40 485 5905​