Kannen, A., Jedrasik, J., Kowalewski, M., Oldakowski, B., Nowacki, J.. Assessing catchment-coast interactions for the Bay of Gdansk. In: Schernewski, G., Löser, N. (eds.). BaltCoast 2004 - Managing the Baltic Sea. Coastline Reports (2), pp. 155-165. 2004.

While eutrophication creates impacts on coastal ecosystems and can result in negative impacts on coastal ecosystem services, its source is often located far away from the coast, related to nutrient emissions from river catchments. Within the EU funded EUROCAT project a chain of tools and models were applied to assess these catchment-coast interactions. Aim of the project is to support Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM), as targeted in the Water Framework Directive (WFD), in order to mitigate possible externalities induced in the coastal zone by socio-economic development in the catchment. The DPSIR-approach of the European Environment Agency was  selected as the analytical tool to handle this complex man-ecosystem interactions. Scenarios represent possible futures in which environmental risk perception, societal interpretation of environmental risk and (coastal) vulnerability will influence political targets, such as the WFD implementation. Some society drivers and related policies are qualitatively assessed under each scenario and the resulting ecological impact on ecosystem integrity is quantified by applying ecosystem models. The Vistula catchment is one of several case studies within EUROCAT. The presentation will outline the assessment framework of EUROCAT focussing on the link between scenarios, DPSIR-indicators and potential impacts. Modelling ecosystem changes for the Bay of  Gdansk using the eco-hydronamic model ProDeMo and related to different scenarios for development within the Vistula catchment will then be presented as a Baltic Sea example to illustrate the approach.