How strategic ecosystem monitoring and assessments are relevant to the management of a marine industry: Offshore wind electricity generation

In the northeast Atlantic region, the ecosystem approach to marine management has been partly implemented through the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which has been variously transposed into supporting national legislative frameworks. Within this implementation of the ecosystem approach, the health and status of the marine ecosystem is required to be regularly reviewed by Strategic Ecosystem Assessments (SEcAs). These are supported by strategic regional-scale ecosystem monitoring. SEcAs track progress towards Good Environmental Status (GES) and identify principal concerns related to specific ecosystem elements. At the same time, other regional and national legislative frameworks aimed at protecting the marine environment require three additional forms of ecosystem assessment. Public plans and policies that may result in human activities which impact the ecosystem are required to have Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in order to identify any potential impacts of such plans. These are often on a regional scale. At a smaller spatial scale, individual developments, such as offshore wind farms, need Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Cumulative Impact Assessments (CIAs) before they are granted a consent and/or licence to progress by the relevant competent authority. Licensing frameworks generally require related targeted monitoring at the scale of individual developments. Using the Scottish region of the North Sea as a case study, this paper considers how monitoring and assessment under these four processes (SEcAs, SEAs, EIAs and CIAs) interface. Better harmonisation between these legislative frameworks may be possible through coordination and data sharing to improve the protection of the marine environment.