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Getting better value from our coasts

EU-MERCES webinar series

By GRID-Arendal

January 15^th, 2018

A new webinar series focussed on marine ecosystem restoration provides fresh perspectives on how we can benefit from better planning for a healthy marine environment.

GRID-Arendal and the Marine Ecosystem Service Partnership (MESP) will host a 5-part webinar series from MERCES (Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas), an Horizon 2020 project for Blue Growth funded by the European Commission and focused on the restoration of degraded marine habitats from the coast to the deep sea. The webinar series will be of interest to a wide variety of stakeholders from academia to businesses, economists and decision makers.

The first webinar, named ‘Restoration of shallow, soft-bottom ecosystems’, will take place on 15th February 2018 at 15:00 (Paris time) and will focus on two important projects:

Photo: Steven Lutz

Valuing Multiple Eelgrass Ecosystem Services in Sweden: Fish Production and Uptake of Carbon and Nitrogen

Dr Scott Cole, EnviroEconomics Sweden Consultancy, Gothenburg

Per-Olav Moksnes, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

Eelgrass meadows create several important ecosystem functions, which in turn provide society with important ecosystem goods and services. Along the Swedish northwest coast, more than 60 %, approximately 12 500 ha, of the eelgrass beds have vanished since the 1980s as a result of coastal eutrophication and overfishing. How can we value the many different benefits of eelgrass beds and what have we lost? Scott Cole, an environmental economist, will discuss a three-year research project that developed an interdisciplinary framework for estimating the monetary value associated with multiple ecosystem services provided by eelgrass meadows and how the consideration of multiple benefits in the coastal zone leads to better management decisions.

Computer graphics technology: Robert Rooseboom, NIOZ.

Using 3D Computer graphics to convey restoration goals to decision makers and the general public

Professor Johan van der Koppel, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)

In this session, Johan van de Koppel will outline a new technique for presenting the projected outcome of nature restoration and compensation projects using a combination of ecological models and 3D visualization techniques. Using ecological simulation models, we predict the way in which ecosystems might evolve following restoration measures. This is then used as the basis for 3D Computer Graphics techniques that can build photo-realistic representations of what ecosystems may look like following restoration. These representations, in photo, video, or virtual reality formats, can be used the convince decision makers and the general audience of the value of ecosystem restoration and how they might be used for habitat compensation planning in the coastal zone.

Getting better value from our coasts

Footnotes

Header photo: Eduardo Infantes

Register in advance for the webinar

FootNotes

Header photo: Eduardo Infantes

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