EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
The further development of
the monitoring methodology and the data handling for the TMAP
made considerable progress during 1997. The work was carried
out in a project called DEMOWAD" which is running until
March 1998 and is being co-financed by the European Commission
under the LIFE- NATURE program.
A TMAP Manual entailing guidelines
of selected parameter groups and a functioning prototype of a
data exchange system were presented to the 8th Trilateral Governmental
Conference in Stade, Germany, 22 October 1997. The Ministers
adopted a common package of monitoring parameters and decided
to establish the necessary financial and organizational preconditions
for its implementation including the associated data management.
1 The Common Package of
Parameters
The TMAP parameters were
deduced from defined monitoring objectives (TMAP Issues of Concern,
Ecological Targets). During trilateral expert workshops in 1995
and 1996, proposals were made on monitoring methods for all parameter
groups ("Wadden
Sea Ecosystem" No. 6, 1996).
Because of technical and
financial restrictions, only selected parts of the parameter
groups will be applied. The selection of parameters for this
"common package" were made on the basis of defined
criteria which cover the technical effort for the implementation,
the relative importance for the respective TMAP Issues of Concern
and the Ecological Targets. The "common package" together
with the TMAP guidelines were endorsed by the 8th Trilateral
Governmental Wadden Sea Conference in Stade, Germany, October
1997, as part of the Ministerial Declaration (see Annex 1).
This will guarantee that
an appropriate base of information concerning the most important
questions of the TMAP will readily be available for the assessment.
The contents of the "common package" will be regularly
evaluated. Having the appropriate conditions in place, further
parameter groups may gradually be added, thus increasing the
information quality of the monitoring program. This procedure
secures that the TMAP will continuously be adapted to the needs
of the trilateral policies.
2 TMAP Manual
The TMAP
Manual entails information about the TMAP (objectives, structure,
assessment), the TMAP guidelines and the TMAP Data Management.
A first draft version of the Manual was presented at the Stade
Conference and was modified according to the decisions taken
at the Conference.
The TMAP guidelines referred
as much as possible to the JAMP guidelines adopted by ASMO 1997
in order to enhance mutual benefit and to avoid redundancies.
Assessment tools like ecotoxicological assessment criteria, background/reference
concentrations and the Common Procedure for the Identification
of the Eutrophication Status will also be used in the TMAP assessment.
TMAP guidelines for monitoring
of soft bottom macrozoobenthos were elaborated referring to the
JAMP guideline (JAMP Eutrophication Monitoring Guidelines: Benthos,
Technical Annex 2).
3 Data Management
An elementary component of
the TMAP is common data management through which monitoring data
are made available. This data management system will be implemented
with the individual monitoring parameters. For this purpose,
databases will be installed in each country where the appropriate
Wadden Sea data will be uniformly stored. The monitoring data
will then be more readily available in a shorter span of time
as in the past. Also, all the information which is necessary
for the interpretation of the data is part of the database and
will also be available for downloading. The trilateral data exchange
system was developed by "DEMOWAD" project (running
from 1 April 1995 to 31 March 1998, co-financed by the European
Commission under the LIFE program).
A prototype of this system
was finalized and tested in 1997. Breeding bird counts and metal
concentrations in blue mussels were used as test data. The first
practical experiences have been available since the summer of
1997 and they prove the functionality of the system. An overview
of the data can be found in the data catalogue which can also
be reached on the Internet by the public. The downloading of
data is restricted to selected expert groups who are responsible
for assessing and publishing said data.
4 Assessment Report of
the Wadden Sea Ecosystem
On the occasion of the 8th
Trilateral Governmental Wadden Sea Conference, Stade, Germany,
22 October 1997, an Assessment of the
Wadden Sea Ecosystem was published. The report is based upon
material, contributed by a large number of experts in the past
two years. These contributions will be published in the second
half of 1998 in the full Wadden Sea Quality Status Report which
will be timely available for the Regional North Sea QSR of OSPAR.
The assessment is structured
according to the habitats as defined at the 7th Trilateral Governmental
Wadden Sea Conference, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, 1994. It
concerns the tidal area, the salt marshes, the estuaries, the
beaches and dunes and the North Sea offshore zone. Each of these
chapters starts with a definition of the habitat and the relevant
ecological targets. A separate chapter on birds and seals was
added because these species groups use more than one habitat.
The habitat type 'rural area' is addressed in this chapter as
well. The report starts with a chapter on the quality of water,
sediment and biota.
The actual assessment focuses
on the status of the ecotargets.
In the last chapter the main
issues of concern, identified in the 1993 Quality Status Report,
are reevaluated on the basis of new knowledge and insights.
