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The Changing Mediterranean Coastal Marine Environment –
Global, Regional and Cross-Border Challenges
Georgios SYLAIOS
Associate Professor
Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology
Department of Environmental Engineering
School of Engineering,
Democritus University of Thrace
67100 Xanthi, Greece
E-mail: [email protected]
www.env.duth.gr/eet
The Mediterranean Sea, the larger semi-enclosed sea on Earth (latitude: 30o 46oN, longitude: 6oW – 36oE) lies between Europe, Asia and Africa; without
the Black Sea it covers about 2.5 million km2 or 0.82% of Earth’s surface
Its uniqueness arises from the limited connection with the Atlantic
Ocean, through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, the man-made
connection with the Red Sea via the Suez Canal, and the smaller semienclosed Black Sea through the narrow Bosporus Strait.
The water deficit, caused by the greater rate of evaporation
compared to precipitation and river run-off, is mainly compensated by
the inflow of Atlantic water through the Straits of Gibraltar (1,800
km3) and by the water contribution from the Black Sea through the
Straits of the Dardanelles (300 km3).
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most oligotrophic seas of the
world, a result of the interaction of the general circulation pattern
with the productivity inside the basin and with the export production
and remineralization in the water column.
The Sea is confined by a coastline of 46,000 km long (27,000 km in
continental shorelines and 19,000 km in island shorelines), characterized
by a narrow shelf and littoral zone. The coastal zone of the
Mediterranean Sea (the area shallower than the 200 m contour)
represents approximately 578,000 km2 or 20% of its total area.
The Mediterranean coastal zone includes twenty-two coastal countries,
most of them having signed the Barcelona Convention; eight of them
(Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Malta and Cyprus) belong
to the EU, covering approximately half of the Mediterranean coastline.
Many parts of the coastline are comprise rocky shores (about 54%)
with high cliffs, such as the Alicante Spanish cliffs exceeding 150 m and
the Croatian mega-cliffs over 1,000 m.
These rocky shores are interrupted by sedimentary shores
(approximately 46% of total coastline length), that include important
and fragile ecosystems such as beaches, dunes, reefs, lagoons,
swamps, estuaries and deltas
Table 1. Mediterranean habitat types covered by the EU Habitat Directive.
Habitat Habitat Type
Code
11
Open Seas and Tidal Areas
1110
Sandbanks, which are slightly covered by seawater all the time
1120
Posidonia beds (Posidonion oceanicae)
1130
Estuaries
1140
Mudflats and sand flats not covered by seawater at low tide
1150
Coastal lagoons
1160
Large shallow inlets and bays
1170
Reefs
8330
Submerged or partially submerged sea caves
It is very evident that the Habitat Directive did not consider the
diversity of habitat types that characterizes the Mediterranean Sea.
Coralligenous formations are not covered and, furthermore, the
spectacular diversity of Mediterranean biota found on capes and
promontories is ignored
Human Impacts on the Mediterranean Coastal Zone
Human Population
More than 145 million people live permanently along its coastline in 234
coastal administrative entities. Coastal Mediterranean population grew
from 95 million in 1970 to 145 million in 2000 (approximately 50 million
additional inhabitants within 30 years), at an average annual growth rate
of 1.4%. By 2025 this figure will reach 174 million inhabitants, at an
annual growth rate of 0.8%, a year that seasonal tourism flows also
expected to escalate to a projected 350 million tourists.
Urban Sprawl
The artificial land cover is expanding at an alarming pace: about 40% of
the Mediterranean coasts are now concreted due to urban sprawl,
roads, tourist facilities, ports. Based on Blue Plan projections, by 2025,
the artificial land cover of the coastal strip (0-10 km) would reach
values close to saturation in Spain, Egypt and Lebanon.
Landscape Changes
An unprecedented degradation of coastal landscapes has occurred along
the Mediterranean coastlines, as a result of growing population and
consumption expectations. Landscape changes are associated to
artificial land cover, urban expansion, touristic over-development,
agricultural intensification, sand dune afforestation, logging, removal
of reed beds, etc.
Marine Litter
Mediterranean coastal waters show increased quantities of marine
litter on beaches, floating debris and the seabed. The analysis of
marine litter sources indicates the contribution of household disposal
(17%), tourist facilities (16%) and runoff from waste dumps (15%).
The majority of this litter is plastic (55%), wood (28%) and metal
(11%). Large plastic material affect marine organism through
indigestion and entanglement, but presently more attention is given to
the impact of micro-plastics.
Eutrophication
Although the Mediterranean is an oligotrophic sea, there is a rim of
eutrophic waters due to the terrestrial influx of nutrients, along the
coastal areas. Eutrophication is exerted by urbanization, tourism
development, industrial effluents and agricultural fertilizers.
Toxic Marine Pollution
Toxic Marine Pollution
Organic and microbiological pollutants provided by untreated domestic and
industrial wastewater discharges affect directly the quality of bathing
waters. Run-off from municipal and industrial discharges are responsible for
160,000 and 110,000 tons, respectively, whereas a less important yet
appreciable contribution (35,000 tons) is ascribed to atmospheric deposition.
Toxic Marine Pollution
In the Mediterranean Sea, estimates show that the total input of
petroleum hydrocarbons reaches 635,000 tons/year. More than half of
this input (330,000 tons) is accounted for by spilled oil from tankers,
ballasting and loading operations, bilge and tank wastes.
Biodiversity Changes
Species exploitation, habitat loss and destruction, eutrophication,
introduced predators and bio-invasions, diseases and the general human
disturbance are considered as the basic threats to the biodiversity.
Fishery Over-exploitation
The pressures of fishery activities stem from commercial fisheries,
recreational fisheries, and aquaculture. 32 of 38 stocks assessed in
Mediterranean European countries are overfished (about 84%), while only
4 stocks are considered sustainably exploited.
Coastal Erosion
Coastal erosion is an environmental threat, related to a combination of
human activities such as damming and coastal development, the
abandonment of agriculture, and global climate change. Coastal erosion
appears evident in the deltaic zones of Nile and Po Rivers.
Sea Level Rise
The last assessment report of the IPCC-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change has given new sea -level rise estimates that range between 18 and
59 cm up to the end of next century. An average between the different
models and scenarios can be set at about 40 cm of global sea level rise.
Sea Level Rise
The sea level in the Mediterranean shows a strong variability over the
last century. In any case, with a rate of approximately 1.2 mm/yr the
observed rate of rise is significantly lower than the global average.
Cumulative Impact Model
Legal – Institutional Instruments for Coastal Management
The ICZM Protocol for Mediterranean Coastlines
The Mediterranean ICZM Protocol is the first of its kind and
constitutes, as of today, the only international legal instrument
specifically aimed at coastal zone management.
Before this Protocol, coastal areas were governed in a fragmented
manner by international law, while coastal zone protective
measures were included into geographical substantives and habitat
or species protection were covered by sectoral regulations.
The Protocol is therefore an innovative instrument in several
respects:
1.It moves beyond a framework of recommendations, into a set of
binding legal obligations,
2.It alters the traditional inter-state cooperation incorporating
disciplines previously covered by national legislation (urban
planning law, coastal economic activities laws, etc).
ICZM Recommendation
The Protocol identifies that Coastal Zone Planning and
Management should be based on:
• Ecosystem-approach, leading to the sustainable resources
use,
• Consider climate change effects,
• Provide sound coastal protection, including of cultural
heritage,
• Develop sustainable economic environment,
• Promote a functional social and cultural system in local
communities,
• allow access to the coast for leisure – landscape,
• encourage cohesion and accessibility for remote coastal
settlements.
ICZM Principles
The Protocol introduces:
• a broad thematic and geographic perspective and integrative
manner,
• a long-term perspective,
• adaptive management based on sound knowledge,
• consideration of local specificities,
• the concept of ecosystem “carrying capacity”,
• the necessity to involve all parties concerned (especially
administrative bodies at national, regional and local level),
• the use of a “mix of instruments” to facilitate coherence
between sectoral policy objectives and between planning and
management.
Protocol Problems encountered
• Mature ICZM practices rarely observed
• Lack of common understanding on the principles of ICZM
• Varying scope and nature of actions
• Expanded cooperation on use and sharing of information is
needed
• Collective learning
• Stakeholder consultation structures and networking
• Continued need for coherent EU policies / legislation
• Need for further support for implementation
• Need for more data
BRIDGING THE IMPLEMENTATION GAP:
FACILITATING CROSS-BORDER ICZM
IMPLEMENTION BY LOWERING LEGALINSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS IN THE MSB
Project Leader: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Partners from Greece, Malta, Israel, Spain and Jordan
Total Budget: 4.3 Meuros
ProblemDefinition
Definition
Problem
A policy-implementation gap has been observed in the
implementation of the ICZM Protocol along the Mediterranean
coastlines.
The main factors for this are:
a)the sensitivity of terrestrial and marine ecosystems along the
Mediterranean coastlines and across the national borders,
b)the difficulties of coordinating public policies (and even data
bases) across the Mediterranean Basin's highly differing legaladministrative regimes, cultures, and socio-economic levels, and
c)the presence of several outright geo-political conflicts among
Mediterranean Basin countries.
MARENOSTRUM
NOSTRUMCentral
CentralObjectives
Objectives
MARE
to identify the impediments and coordinate better the
implementation of the ICZM Protocol, the EU Marine Stategy Framework
Directive and other relevant laws and policies at local, national and
cross-border levels,
to aid the bridging of policy implementation gap in ICZM along the
Mediterranean,
to improve the integration of coastal zone policies within the
broader socio-economic and spatial planning policies,
to develop coastal planning and management tools – both for the
terrestrial and the marine zones, as instruments embedded within the
legal, institutional, administrative and fiscal context.
Partnership Characteristics
Partnership Characteristics
The partner countries and municipalities have been carefully chosen
so as to encompass examples of coastline management issues along
two dimensions:
1.Varying degrees of effectiveness of the legal-administrative
system to regulate and enforce effectively the ICZM Protocol, and
2.Conflict-ridden or non-conflictual cross-border relations. Spain,
Malta and most parts of Greece are non-conflictual with their national
neighbors; Israel and Jordan and the towns along the Greek-Turkish
border (such as Alexandropoulos) are more conflictual.
MARE NOSTRUM Main Outputs
There will be five outputs:
1.a Toolkit of Alternative Policy Instruments, developed on the basis of
assessment of the local impediments for implementation and structured in a
phased mutual learning approach. The Toolkit will be applied in the 6
municipalities participating in the project and extended through training to other
EU Member States and Mediterranean Partner Countries;
2.a web-based Participatory GIS - a tool empowering people to communicate
effectively and to achieve transparent ICZM governance and collaboration of all
stakeholders. The PPGIS tool will be base on layers of local environmental and
legal-institutional data (including statutory plans) accessible to the broad public
and suited to the different Mediterranean regional contexts.
3.A model ICZM Observatory in one of the municipalities to help create a
feasibly shared mode of data collection and monitoring beyond the Project's
cycle;
4.a preliminary draft of supra-national legislation tailored for the Med
countries
5.Establishment of Mediterranean ICZM Action Forum (consortium) to link
with other consortia.
The Kavala Municipality ICZM Observatory
Environmental
& Cultural
Characteristics
Legal &
Institutional
Issues
ICZM Observatory
Pressures &
Impacts on the
Coastal Zone
Information
Integration on a
Coastal PPGIS
Public
Involvement
and
Participation
Actions
Legal – Institutional Issues
•Determine the relevant legislation (EU and national) on
environmental issues, spatial planning, fisheries, agriculture, tourism,
industry, etc., referring on the coastal zone of interest,
•Assess the current legal-institutional instruments available
among the participating countries, from the point of view of
understanding them not as a formal set of laws and/or policies, but
rather as instruments embedded within a broader legal-institutional
and administrative context.
•Investigate the degree of Protocol implementation, the legal and
institutional constraints and impediments on its implementation, the
complex and overlapping or conflicting jurisdiction roles and
responsibilities of various management bodies in most countries, and
across borders,
•Determine the competent authorities involved in ICZM at local,
regional and national level,
Environmental & Cultural Characteristics
•Define the site-specific characteristics of the coastal zone
(topography, bathymetry, currents, waves, air and sea temperature
ranges, etc.,),
•Collect information on present status of environmental quality
(air, land and marine),
•Define coastal ecosystems of special protection (e.g., wetlands
and estuaries, marine coastal habitats, coastal forests, dunes, coastal
landscapes, archaeological, historical and cultural heritage sites, etc.),
•Determine habitat types, especially those identified by EU
legislation, characteristics, importance, protection regime, etc.,
•Define biological characteristics of the coastal zone (e.g., fish
population, coastal habitats (indigenous, non-indigenous species,
etc.),
•Establish coastal indicators for the analysis of coastal
environmental and cultural characteristics at local level (vicinity, ideal
coastline, terrestrial depth, coastality, etc.).
Pressures and Impacts on the Coastal Zone
•Determine human economic activities and respective land uses on the
coastal zone (Agriculture, industry, fishing, aquaculture, tourism, natural
resources utilization areas, coastal infrastructures, maritime activities, etc.),
•Collect information concerning future development plans on spatial
development, energy, tourism, transportation, etc. (Some site-specific
examples are: the Kavala Port Master Plan, Kavala city expansion to
Perigiali plan, Alexandroupolis’ coastal zone expansion plan, Kavala’s new
harbor expansion plan, utilization of coastal reservoirs for gas storage, the
new gas terminal in the coastal zone of Alexandroupolis, environmental
management and flood prevention in the Delta area of Evros river etc.),
•Identify the key legal, institutional and administrative impediments
(including property rights regimes) to the implementation of ICZM policies,
viewed from the local level upwards.
• Identify key impacts of human pressure as coastal eutrophication,
coastal erosion, waste and wastewater disposal, overfishing, alien species
introduction, sand and gravel extraction, port and coastal development, land
and marine-based pollution, etc.,
• Identify key impacts of natural pressure and disasters as flooding,
extreme waves and currents, effects of climate changes, etc.
Information Integration on a PPGIS
•Develop a Geographic Information System to integrate the above
information, data and maps.
•Achieve of public-wide participation by uploading the GIS on the
web,
•Utilize the expertise of project partners to expand the system
towards a PPGIS,
Actions of Coordination and Public Participation
•Establish policy actions to support the effective implementation of
the ICZM protocol, to strengthen the capacities of competent
organizations by providing the developed instruments, tools and
processes, and promote the ICZM Protocol within the region and
nation-wide.
•Organize coordination actions with the various authorities
competent for both marine and land parts of the coastal zone at
national, regional and local levels,
•Involve local actors and stakeholders (NGOs, economic operators,
social actors, public),
•Promote actions of public awareness, training and education.
Establishing and participating in international networks.
The Kavala Coastal Environmental Monitoring System
Bottom – deployed real-time
monitoring systems
Meteorological, wave and currents
data will be continually monitored
Data transferred to the ICZM
Observatory
Data visualization and internet
uploading
The Kavala Coastal Environmental Modeling System
WAVE MODELS
Wave real-time models (wave
height, incident wave energy, wave
period and length).
Vulnerability to erosion
assessment based on models and
observations
Data visualization and internet
uploading
The Kavala Coastal Environmental Modeling System
HYDRODYNAMIC MODELS
Hydrodynamic real-time
models (currents at the
surface and bottom).
Sensitivity to pollution
assessment based on models
and observations
Data visualization and internet
uploading
The Kavala Coastal Environmental Modeling System
WATER QUALITY MODELS
Water quality real-time models
(nutrients, chlorophyll-a from
surface to the bottom).
Sensitivity to eutrophication
assessment based on models
and observations
Data visualization and internet
uploading
The Kavala Coastal Environmental Modeling System
EUTROPHICATION MODELS
Plankton growth real-time models for various plankton species.
Sensitivity to toxic and harmful algal blooms assessment based on
models and observations
Data visualization and internet uploading
Clustering
The Project aims to gather
and capitalize the
contributions of the
European projects which
dealt or deal with the
matter of the coastal
defense against natural and
anthropogenic risks
(erosion, flooding, salt
water intrusion,
subsidence, etc.) in the
frame of the adaptation
policy to climate change
(sea level rise,
strengthening of extreme
phenomena, etc.) and
sustainable development.
The Cluster FACE COAST
The main cluster activities may be summarized as follows:
• exchange different governance approaches to go beyond the
territorial fragmentation;
• exchange different approaches to involve policymakers;
• develop synergies between different sectors and different policies
for facing coastal adaptation to CC according to the ICZM principles;
• raise awareness on natural/human coastal risks for the
Mediterranean areas at European level;
• design, on the grounds of the past and ongoing experiences, an
organic and coherent set of initiatives (preparatory, planning, structural
and monitoring) able to influence and cope with the issue concerned in
the Mediterranean area at a large scale (Macro-project) .
Conclusions
MARE NOSTRUM may provide the necessary policy platform to bridge
the gaps of ICZM Protocol implementation at the Med scale
The Municipal Coastal Observatory could be the pilot for an integrated
monitoring system applied at local level, but interconnected to other
similar Observatories over the Mediterranean.
Obvious synergies between MARE NOSTRUM and other programs and
institutions may be developed