Green Infrastructure (GI) concept for MSP and its application within - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Green Infrastructure (GI) concept for MSP and its application within Pan Baltic Scope project Anda Ruskule, Solvita Strāķe, Ingūna Urtāne , MoEPRD, Latvia Lena Bergström, HELCOM Jan Schmidtbauer Crona , SwAM, Sweden Jonne Kotta , MoF/EMI, Estonia Philipp Arndt , BSH, Germany

EU Policy context • The EU Biodiversity Strategy’s target 2 requires that “by 2020, ecosystems and their services are maintained and enhanced by establishing green infrastructure and restoring at least 15% of degraded ecosystems.” • The action 6 of the Strategy is setting priorities to restore and promote the use of green infrastructure, • EU-wide strategy promoting investments in green infrastructure , adopted by EC in 2013, defines GI as “ Strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services . It incorporates green spaces (or blue if aquatic ecosystems are concerned) and other physical features in terrestrial (including coastal) and marine areas .” • EC Guidance on a strategic framework for supporting the deployment of EU-level green and blue infrastructure is expected to come out soon www.panbalticscope.eu 2

HELCOM context GI topic addressed by the HELCOM-VASAB MSP working group, Warsaw, 7-8 November 2017 : a background document on “Green infrastructure”/ “Blue corridors”  outlines the definitions, functions and features of GI, highlighting its applicability to marine ecosystem;  calls to investigate the possible regional development of concepts such as green infrastructure, blue corridors etc. with the aim of producing a draft regional concept of a GI by the end of 2019;  notes that the Pan Baltic Scope project is going to test and further develop the concept of GI for the Baltic Sea region. www.panbalticscope.eu 3

Objectives of the PanBaltic Scope Activity 1.2.4. Green Infrastructure  To outline a concept of marine “green infrastructure”  To test the concept by utilizing available data  To collect feedback from the HELCOM-VASAM MSP WG and HELCOM State and Conservation group www.panbalticscope.eu 4

Outline of the Pan Baltic Scope interpretation of the marine GI concept Marine GI is formed by a spatial network of ecologically valuable areas significant for:  ecosystems’ health and resilience,  biodiversity conservation and,  multiple delivery of ES essential for human well-being. Areas of high Areas providing Green ecological multiple ecosystem infrastructure value services map www.panbalticscope.eu 5

Pan Baltic Scope approach for mapping of marine GI www.panbalticscope.eu 6

Mapping based on available data sets: HELCOM Maps and Data services, prepared in the HELCOM HOLAS II project Ecosystem component HELCOM HOLAS II data sets not included Benth thic h habita tats ts Availability of deep water habitat, based on occurrence of H2S Infralittoral hard bottom in PBS assessment Infralittoral sand Infralittoral mud • Fish data – replaced with ESH developed by Infralittoral mixed Circalittoral hard bottom PBS, including: Circalittoral sand Circalittoral mud  spawning areas of cod, sprat, herring, Circalittoral mixed Sandbanks which are slightly covered by sea water at all time (1110) European flounder, Baltic flounder Estuaries (1130) Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide (1140)  recruitment areas of perch, pikeperch, Coastal lagoons (1150) Large shallow inlets and bays (1160) and flounder Reefs (1170) Submarine structures made by leaking gas (1180) • Mammals data – removed due to Baltic Esker Islands (UW parts, 1610) insufficient accuracy; Boreal Baltic islets and small islands (UW parts, 1620) Habit itat at b build ldin ing s specie ies Furcellaria lumbricalis • Productive surface waters – not included Zostera marina Charophytes because would not reveal any spatial Mytilus edulis Fucus sp. differences. Pela lagic ic h habitat ats Productive surface waters* Mobile ile s species a and their ir Cod abundance* key h habit itat ats Cod spawning area* Herring abundance* Sprat abundance* Recruitment areas of perch* Recruitment areas of pikeperch* Wintering seabirds Breeding seabird colonies Grey seal distribution* Harbour seal distribution* Ringed seal distribution* www.panbalticscope.eu 7

Mapping of the areas of high ecologicl vale Matrix developed, assessing HELCOM HOLAS II ecosystem components (in binary scale: 0/1) in relation to 7 criteria:  biological diversity;  rarity;  importance for threatened, endangered or declining species and/or habitats;  vulnerability, fragility, sensitivity, or slow recovery;  special importance for life-history stages of species;  biological productivity. www.panbalticscope.eu 8

Matrix for assessment of ecological value HELCOM BSII Ecological Diversity Components Biodiversity Rarity Importance for Vulnerability, Special importance Biological threatened, fragility, for life-history productivity endangered or sensitivity or slow stages of species declining species recovery and/or habitats Availability of deep water habitat, based on occurrence of H2S 0 1 0 0 0 0 Infralittoral hard bottom 0 1 0 0 0 0 Infralittoral sand 0 1 0 0 0 0 Infralittoral mud 0 1 0 0 0 0 Infralittoral mixed 0 1 0 0 0 0 Circalittoral hard bottom 1 1 1 1 1 1 Circalittoral sand 0 1 1 1 1 1 Circalittoral mud 0 1 1 1 1 1 Circalittoral mixed 1 1 1 1 1 1 Sandbanks which are slightly covered by sea water at all time (1110) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Estuaries (1130) 1 1 1 0 1 1 Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide (1140) 0 1 0 0 0 0 Coastal lagoons (1150) 1 1 1 0 1 1 Large shallow inlets and bays (1160) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Reefs (1170) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Submarine structures made by leaking gas (1180) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Baltic Esker Islands (UW parts, 1610) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Boreal Baltic islets and small islands (UW parts, 1620) 1 1 1 1 1 1 Furcellaria lumbricalis 1 1 1 1 1 1 Zostera marina 1 1 1 1 1 1 Charophytes 1 1 1 1 1 1 Mytilus sp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Fucus sp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Productive surface waters 1 1 1 0 1 1 Cod abundance 0 0 1 0 0 1 Cod spawning area 1 1 1 1 1 1 Herring abundance 0 0 0 0 0 1 Sprat abundance 0 0 0 0 0 1 Recruitment areas of perch 1 1 1 1 1 1 Recruitment areas of pikeperch 0 1 1 1 1 1 Wintering seabirds 1 1 1 1 1 0 Breeding seabird colonies 1 1 1 1 1 0 Grey seal distribution 0 0 0 0 0 0 Harbour seal distribution 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ringed seal distribution 1 1 1 1 0 0 Distribution of harbour porpoise 1 1 1 1 0 0 www.panbalticscope.eu

Mapping of the areas of high ecologicl vale (EV) Calculations performed using extension to the Baltic Sea Impact Index • calculation too l, which is under development in Pan Baltic Scope A hierarchical data aggregation method (value normalized between 0 and 1) •  Up to 24 maps representing average value of each criteria in relation to each group of ecosystem components  4 aggregated EV maps for each group of ecological components - habitats, birds, fish mammals - to avoid a domination of ecological features that are overrepresented within the HELCOM HOLAS II ecosystem components data set  Total aggregated EV map produced as the average value for the four groups of ecological components www.panbalticscope.eu 10

Example on aggregation of the EV: benthic habitats Importance for threated Biological diversity Biological productivity species Aggregated value map: habitats Importance for life- Vulnerability Rarity history stages www.panbalticscope.eu 11

Aggregated ecological value map combining four groups of ecological components EV - Benthic EV - Fish EV - Birds EV - mammals www.panbalticscope.eu 12

Mapping ecosystem service supply potential Using expert knowledge and published studies on biophysical processes • underping ES supply:  Ecosystem components as proxy for service supply;  Selection of ES: regulating & maintanace services; cultural services  Matrix: interlinking ecosystem components with capacity to supply ES  Selection of indicators for ES assessment  Binary assessment of potenitial ES supply by each ecosystem component (0 – ecosystem component has no or negligible contribution to particular service; 1 – ecosystem component can provide the service) www.panbalticscope.eu 13

Identification of ecosystem services (CICES V5.1) Wild plants, algae and their outputs Provisioning services Wild animals and their outputs Bio-remediation Filtration of nutrients Filtration/sequestration/storage/ Storage of nutrients accumulation Control of erosion Storage of hazardous substances Hydrological cycle and water flow Regulating services regulation (Including coastal protection) Pollination, seed dispersal Maintaining nursery populations and habitats Pest control Regulation of atmospheric CO2 and other Regulation of the chemical condition of greenhouse gases by biological fixation in salt waters by living processes process of photosynthesis Regulation of chemical composition of atmosphere and oceans Regulation of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases by sequestration in Cultural services sediments Physical and experiential interactions www.panbalticscope.eu