Assessing the environmental status in the Mediterranean Sea: a case-study in Saronikos Gulf to be extended to the regional sea Angel Borja (AZTI), Alexandra Pavlidou (HCMR), Nomiki Simboura (HCMR) MEDCIS General Assembly, 21st – 23rd February 2018, Athens medcis.eu

(Nested Environmental status Assessment Tool) Introduction NEAT (Nested Environmental status Assessment Tool)

Develop a case study test of the assessment tools’ performance OBJECTIVES Establish nested sets of geographical assessment areas for the Mediterranean; Develop a case study test of the assessment tools’ performance Update the MSFD 2012 assessment for the Mediterranean Develop ways of communicating assessment results in accessible manner to general public and policymakers

Task: Integration of the information and assessment ASSESSMENT METHOD Task: Integration of the information and assessment We are using NEAT in the assessment: Software for environmental assessment within the MSFD Integrative assessment across indicators Database with >600 indicators (DEVOTool) Customizable by the user (in this case for the Mediterranean) Tested in 10 case-studies across Europe Tested in Caspian Sea, Saudi Arabia and Canada Available free of charge http://www.devotes-project.eu/neat A pilot case study (Saronikos Gulf) completed in October 2017 Other case studies (using as many indicators as possible) or complete assessment for the Mediterranean (using few indicators) completed by the end December 2018

ASSESSMENT METHOD

S7-Psittalia Sewage Outfall: Heavily Polluted Inner Saronikos Gulf: Moderately Polluted Outer Saronikos: Slightly Polluted Western Saronikos: Moderately Polluted Elefsis Bay: Heavily Polluted SARONIKOS CASE STUDY Pressure Index classification

SARONIKOS CASE STUDY

SARONIKOS CASE STUDY Why Saronikos Gulf? Availability of data from several ecosystem components in order to assess the status of different MSFD descriptors covering a period of several years. Available information on human activities and pressures, allowing us to use this area as a suitable testing case study, which can be extended to other parts of the Mediterranean. Analyses Performed Area Analysis: Non-Weighted by SAU Area Analysis: Weighted by SAU Area Analysis: Filtered by Descriptor. Non-weighted by SAU Analysis before and after the upgrading the WWTP

2 habitat types were defined: Benthic (rocky and sedimentary) and SARONIKOS CASE STUDY SARONIKOS CASE STUDY 2 habitat types were defined: Benthic (rocky and sedimentary) and Pelagic. A total of 22 indicators over 10 stations were used throughout 2000-2016 The study area has been divided into five Spatial Assessment Units (SAU): Psittalia (sewage outfall) Τhe Inner Saronikos Gulf Τhe Outer Saronikos Gulf Τhe industrial zone of Elefsis Bay and Τhe Western Basin

SARONIKOS CASE STUDY No Weighted The application of NEAT tool in Saronikos Gulf classified the whole Saronikos Gulf basin into GOOD status under both treatments. Weighted by SAU Area Psittalia and Elefsis bay, the most impacted sub-areas of Saronikos Gulf were classified into MODERATE and POOR status, respectively.

SARONIKOS CASE STUDY Area Analysis: Filtered by Descriptor. Non-weighted by SAU Filtered by D1, D6 Filtered by D1, D6 Filtered by D5 Filtered by D8 Organic sediment contamination, benthic fauna and vegetation, mammals and alien species are the most impacted ecological components in Saronikos Gulf.

Analysis before and after the upgrading the WWTP SARONIKOS CASE STUDY Analysis before and after the upgrading the WWTP Before Regarding the assessment in relation to the advancement of WWTP it appears that the water column and sediments’ chemical parameters showed an improved status after the WWTP upgrade in Psittalia, while the biological components remained more or less at the same status The benthic vegetation ecosystem component through the EEIc index showed a statistically significant difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ treatments of the data. After

OVERALL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION NEAT shows gradients of indicators/status according to the distance from pollution source. NEAT results are in line with previous assessments of the area according to the known pressures Overall improvement of status is due to the progress of the recovery processes in the Gulf, the inclusion of new data and use of more indicators from the outer gulf NEAT status Simboura et al., 2005 Uusitalo et al., 2016 Simboura et al., 2014 Simboura et al., 2016 Present study Data range 2000-2004 2000-2012 2012 2012-2015 2000-2016 Integration method One-out-all out NEAT Two-out-all out Decision tree No of indicators 3 17 2 13 22 Psittalia POOR MODERATE Inner gulf GOOD Outer gulf (only fish & alien) GOOD (all indicators) Elefsis Bay - OVERALL MODERATE IN 2 SAUs (Psittalia and Inner Sar).

EXPANDING THE EXPERIENCE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN Use indicators that can cover all the region or large subregions (e.g. fish mortality for some stocks) Use indicators with large cover that can be split to smaller SAUs (e.g. chlorophyll) Use indicators which can be abundant in some regions but not in others (e.g. contaminants) Use national areas with much data (e.g. Greece) and others with less (e.g. Malta) Use small areas with much data (e.g. some MPAs) Combine all the information to see the feasibility of the approach

EXPANDING THE EXPERIENCE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN: another region NEAT APPLICATION IN IONIAN SEA-GREECE-12 INDICATORS-5 COMPONENTS

CONCLUSIONS NEAT shows gradients of indicators/status according to the distance from pollution source. NEAT demonstrates the effectiveness of management measures taken (Psittalia WWTP), showing temporal changes NEAT results for Saronikos Gulf are in line with previous assessments of the area according to the known pressures. NEAT shows also the Overall Status changes of Saronikos, using long data series (2000-2016) and a large number of indicators and SAUs. The results can be shown at different geographical levels, MSFD descriptors and ecosystem components This tool can be applied to the whole Mediterranean, to show spatial differences in the status

Thank You!