Rationale

With less available space on land, industries are increasingly competing for maritime space. Stability is a prerequisite in promoting investments, growth and jobs, and creating legal certainty; predictability and transparency will reduce costs for investors and operators. European coastal areas are also under increasing pressures from pollution, climate change and intensive use by humans. Agreed standards to assess various human activities and industries, according to the principles of sustainable development, are essential for effective management and planning.

Interdisciplinary research to support maritime spatial management is needed to integrate environmental concerns into the planning of multi-industrial activities in coastal and marine areas.

Activities

• Develop a common strategy for sustained long-term monitoring of human impacts and climate change in coastal areas. Activities will pave the way towards an integrated, long-term platform for European coastal monitoring. This will be achieved through exchanging practice, agreeing on standards, identifying data gaps, proposing actions to cover the gaps and coordinating at national and EU level to optimise monitoring of coastal areas.
• Research to understand marine ecosystems goods and services and their environmental, economic and social value. Integrating these concepts into management, advancing towards an ecosystems approach to develop a sustainable maritime economy, while ensuring the Good Environmental Status of the marine environment.
• Research on the land-sea interface: Activities will take into account the need for the use of existing and the development of new economic and environmental models. It will be based on a multi-disciplinary approach engaging industry and policy makers to enhance predictive capabilities and the development of new services based on user requirements.

Timescale