Tools4MSP CEA#
Description#
Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA)
CEA is the process of systematically analysing and assessing cumulative environmental change. The purpose of CEA is to ensure that the full range of consequences of actions is considered.
Cumulative impacts can occur over different temporal and spatial scales by interacting, combining and compounding so that the overall effect often exceeds the simple sum of previous effects.
The spatial scale can be local, regional or global, whilst the frequency or temporal scale includes past, present and future impacts on a specific environment or region. Cumulative effects can simply be defined as the total impact that a series of developments, either present, past or future, will have on the environment within a specific region over a particular period of time.
Source: DEAT (2004) Cumulative Effects Assessment, Integrated Environmental Management, Information Series 7, Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), Pretoria.
Tools4MSP CEA
The Tools4MSP Geoplatform is a system built on the GeoNode open-source software, which helps people work together on managing location-based information.
the Geoplatform also incorporates the Tools4MSP modelling framework. This framework is an extensive and unified approach crafted to assist in MSP processes. Tailored for decision-makers, planners, and stakeholders engaged in marine environment management, it provides an organized structure and a set of tools.
Within the Tools4MSP framework, a specialized module addresses a spatially explicit CEA. Originating from the methodology by Halpern et al. (2008) and subsequently refined by Andersen et al. (2015), Tools4MSP CEA aims to spatially evaluate the impact of individual or multiple human activities on environmental components. It achieves this by explicitly identifying relationships among the source of pressure, pathways of exposure, and the environmental receptors that may be affected. This structured approach, known as source-pressure-pathway-receptor linkages or an impact chain, aligns with key aspects of environmental risk assessment methodologies (Judd et al., 2015; Stelzenmüller et al., 2018).
Functioning primarily as a modelling framework, Tools4MSP provides a standardized structure for the CEA process. It identifies relationships between relevant concepts and outlines a systematic method for combining and interpreting results from multiple models. In summary, the impact chains are modelled through two distinct but interconnected tasks, namely pressures assessment and effects/impacts assessment.
The framework offers flexibility in integrating various pressure models, but it is crucial to prioritize models that establish a connection, including spatial relationships, between the pressure and the corresponding human activity causing it. The Tools4MSP framework employs two models for pressure estimation: • Isotropic Convolution Model: This serves as the basic model, applied by default when more accurate models are not applicable. It utilizes the spatial distribution of anthropogenic uses in the study area and pressure weights as input parame-ters. • Pressure Assessment of MARine Activities (PMAR) Model: This model employs Lagrangian particle tracking algorithms to generate mid-quality representations of how pressures from human activities spread.
Source: Kotta et al. (2024) Ecological toolkit (ESE1) for MPAs prioritization and networking. Deliverable – D3.4., under the WP3 of MSP4BIO project (GA n° 101060707)