New project improves eutrophication assessments on Baltic-wide scale

25 March 2014

High quality assessing of the entire Baltic Sea’s eutrophication status is expected to greatly improve through a new Project, soon wrapping up its kick-off meeting in Helsinki, Finland. During the 2-year project EUTRO-OPER, the whole assessment process concerning the nine Baltic coastal states will be designed and implemented, from monitoring and data aggregation to visualizing the final assessment.  HELCOM has long experience in assessment work of highest standards – elementary for estimating the effectiveness of any adopted measures and for improving the health of Baltic marine environment.

The key Project results will include more efficient data flow allowing for regular updates in an automated way; flexibility in the system to also extract information; as well as improved integration of indicators on eutrophication status with the use of so called HEAT 3 assessment tool. With the new approach, HELCOM member states will be able to utilize the reported data and assessment to also serve their other requirements such as of EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive as far as EU countries are concerned.

Moreover, the Project outcome will form an integral part of the next HELCOM holistic assessment, also including components on biodiversity and hazardous substances, and published in 2016 as stated in the Ministerial Declaration last year.

The Project will also improve the quality of the existing core indicators on eutrophication status. The measures entail the introduction of new data types such as remote sensing and ship-of-opportunity data, as well as development of additional indicators to fill the gaps in the present set. The task is also to harmonize coastal and open sea assessment.

Making HELCOM eutrophication assessments operational (EUTRO-OPER)

Eutrophication: latest assessment status webpages

Eutrophication status of the Baltic Sea 2007-2011 - A concise thematic assessment