PREHAB

Spatial PREdiction of Baltic benthic HABitats: incorporating human pressures and economic evaluation

Begin date 1.1.2009

End date 31.12.2011

Grant: 932 348€

Spatial planning is an important component of future ecosystem-based resource and risk management of the Baltic environment. To offer reliable options for management, planning need to be based on solid information about the distribution of biological properties of the system, effects of human pressures and socioeconomic costs and benefits of different options for management. Therefore the aims of PREHAB are to, within four Baltic areas:

1. Develop methods for powerful, precise and cost-efficient spatial prediction of the biological properties of coastal habitats

2. Assess indicators of human pressures as predictors of spatial patterns in coastal habitats.

3. Combine predictive models and scenarios of human pressures to assess effects on coastal ecology, ecosystem goods & services and net social benefits associated with alternative management options

The methods developed within PREHAB will provide scientific routines for how to synthesise and use available and new data, tools for evaluating socioeconomic costs and benefits following certain managerial decisions. In particular the tight link from spatial predictions to GIS-based mapping will ensure that the tools developed within PREHAB are readily applied in the practical management of resources and risks. Last but not least, the communicational and educational power of using maps in interactions among the decision makers, various stakeholders and the wider public, cannot be overrated.

Keywords

Predictive modelling, economic evaluation, spatial planning, environmental scenarios, human pressures

List of Participants and Principal Scientists

Reports

Please visit the PREHAB webpage for more information!