European Catchments: catchment changes and their impact on the coast

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying , recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Catchment changes and their impact on the coast i Contents Executive summary ii 1. Introduction 1 2. The EuroCat project 3 3. Catchments and coastal regions definition: issues of scale 7 4. Modelling point and diffuse sources of nutrients in catchments 10 5. Scenarios and eutrophication modelling 14 6. Evaluation of management options and the role of policy advisory boards 19 7. Coastal realignment, nutrient reduction and cost-benefit analysis 23 8. The heritage of past pollution (hot spots) in catchments 28 9. Economic impacts: Mussel farming and tourism 33 10. Contaminated sediment: Rhine catchment 37 11. Drivers, pressures and impacts at the European scale 41 12. Drivers, pressures and impacts at the global scale (LOICZBasins assessment) 47 13. Relevance for European directives and strategies 50 Appendix I. Key documents 52 Appendix II. Participating institutes 55 Institute for Environmental Studies ii Executive summary The coastal zone is under heavy pressure from land-based activities located in the catchment of rivers. Traditionally, both scientific research and the governance framework have treated catchments and coasts as separate entities. However, it is increasingly recognised that they should in fact be treated as an integrated whole, encompassing both environmental as well as socioeconomic and political systems. The EuroCat project was established with an integrated perspective and analytical framework in mind. Across seven regional case studies, local teams of natural and social scientists used a common interdisciplinary strategy to: • Identify the impacts on the coast; • Interface biophysical catchment and coastal models with socioeconomic models; • Develop regional environmental change scenarios (2001-2020); • Link scenarios with the modelling toolbox to evaluate plausible futures; • Evaluate the research outcomes with regional boards consisting of stakeholders and policy makers. The seven systems cover all coastal types (with the exception of fjords) in Europe and different socioeconomic settings. The approach is novel and not all teams had direct experience of working across geographical boundaries and disciplines, hence the project had a strong capacity building component. Eutrophication and in one case pollution (metals) were identified as major issues for the coastal zone. Existing locally available modelling tools and data sets were used in the project. Even the most stringent …