ODEMM Work Package 3 – Operational Objectives

Led by Patricia Breen & Stuart Rogers

During Work Package 3 the consolidation of information on existing sector/regional objectives was assessed against the high level objectives derived from the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive in order to produce a series of operational directives.

The objectives of Work Package 3 were as follows:

  • Identify all the major high-level objectives set by various policy drivers in Europe, with emphasis on the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive.
  • Using outputs from WP1, review, by region, where evidence suggest high-level objectives are currently not being met, and determine confidence in this.
  • Identify gaps where inadequate objectives exist, and where necessary, develop new regional operational objectives.

The following tasks were associated with the work package:

  • Task 3.1: Identify high-level objectives of major marine directives
  • Task 3.2: Identification of regional match to high-level objectives
  • Task 3.3: Identification of regional operational objectives

Outputs

An environmental assessment of risk in achieving good environmental status to support regional prioritisation of management in Europe.

A review of operational objectives in European regional seas. 

ODEMM Status and Trends Tables. Theses tables contain the information used by ODEMM to evaluate the current status and trends of ecological characteristics described in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The tables represent an extensive literature review encompassing Reports, Journal articles, Books, Factsheets and websites and describe all of the ecological characteristics and many of the indicators and criteria listed in the MSFD Annex tables. Each row in the table gives a detailed breakdown of the information available in key sources and describes : (1) the ecological characteristic, its indicator and criteria, (2) the type of assessment (status/trend),its outcomes and the criteria used to classify status, (3) a description of the spatial and temporal coverage of the status/trend information, and (4) the relevance of the information to each of the 11 MSFD GES Descriptors.