MOIRAI Deliverable 3.1 Summary Report on socio-economic and ecological data and indicators (REVIEW PENDING)

Coastal marine environments are affected by multiple stressors, such as climate change and chemical pollution, while also being important for e.g. fisheries, renewable energy development and recreational activities. To support sustainable use of the seas, ensure good status of marine ecosystems, and comply with European legislation, it is necessary to monitor and assess the status of marine environments. One tool is ecosystem, climatic and socio-economic indicators.

To support the further development of relevant marine indicators in the MOIRAI project, we carried out literature reviews focusing on the current use of indicators. The focus of the literature review was on indicators of ecosystem status, climate  change and socioeconomic factors. Indeed, given the strong interplay between coastal marine ecosystems and human activities, the integration of socio-economic indicators, in combination with ecosystem indicators, can improve our understanding of coastal marine environment dynamics, and provide a more holistic perspective. 

The literature reviews showed that indicators are increasingly used. Marine ecosystem indicators have been predominantly applied in European waters, and especially benthic biodiversity and eutrophication indicators have been used. In recent years, an effort towards holistic assessments of marine ecosystem status has taken place, leading to comprehensive tools for ecosystem assessment. With regards to socio-economic indicators, research on evaluating climate impacts on infrastructure, in particular coastal erosion and sea level rise, is well developed, but gaps on transport or renewable energy supply were revealed. Other fields of study, such as living resources and tourism, are less prevalent, while research on non-living resources is quasi-absent. The literature review also demonstrated a strong focus on developing economies, while research on developed regions, including the Mediterranean, that are the focus of the MOIRAI project, is lacking. However, both ecosystem and socio-economic indicators are less developed around commercial fish species and aquaculture, pointing to a gap that the MOIRAI project can
aim to fulfill.

Despite progress in the development of climate synthetic indicators, especially the integration of socio-economic data with ecological and physical factors lacks standardization, which hinders long-term monitoring and actionability. The MOIRAI
project will work towards indicators that take physical, chemical, biological, socioeconomic and climate factors into account, and thus be able to support better-informed decision making and enhance coastal resilience and sustainable management.