Human activities within the coastal zone, which consume space and resources, interact with ecosystems and can modify their structure and functioning.
In recent years, work on understanding and mapping the cumulative effects or impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems has been growing rapidly and is becoming increasingly relevant in the light of the need for assessments associated with the ecosystem approaches favoured by natural resource management policies. Since the seminal assessment of cumulative effects on the marine environment at the global scale conducted by Halpern et al. (2008), research on this topic has been pursued in different parts of the world and the spatial resolution of assessments has increased. Nevertheless, their transposition to a local scale and integrating various activities in their temporal dimensions remains new to our knowledge.
Proposed by Halpern et al (2008), the assessment of pressures and cumulative effects uses a spatial and quantitative analysis method. It considers potential cumulative effects as the result of anthropogenic pressures on ecosystem components.
Geo4Seas has developed an expertise in the spatialization and quantification of pressures and cumulative impacts (Le Guyader et al., 2018):
- at the scale of a management scene (Marine Protected Area),
- by taking into account the co-occurrence (in space and time) of pressures and ecosystem components,
- by organising workshops allowing for the co-construction, with experts, of information that is missing,
- by specifying uncertainties related to the analysis,
- by providing tools for exploring the data and results produced.
References
Halpern, B. S., Walbridge, S., Selkoe, K. A., Kappel, C. V., Micheli, F., D’Agrosa, C., … Watson, R. (2008). A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems. Science, 319(5865), 948‑952. doi: 10.1126/science.1149345
Halpern, B. S., Frazier, M., Afflerbach, J., Lowndes, J. S., Micheli, F., O’Hara, C., … Selkoe, K. A. (2019). Recent pace of change in human impact on the world’s ocean. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1‑8.doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-47201-9
Le Guyader, D., Jannic, N., Harlay, X., & Gruselle, M.-C. (2018). Pressions et effets cumulés produits par les usages de loisir en mer et sur l’estran : Détermination et analyse par saison à l’échelle d’une aire marine protégée. De la côte à l’océan : l’information géographique en mouvement, 106‑109. MerIGéo. Aix en Provence, France