On behalf of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, AquaBiota has developed a Swedish framework for conservation value assessment of the marine environment. The framework is called MOSAIC, and will serve as a tool in various forms of management – from environmental impact assessments, site protection, marine green infrastructure and, not least as a basis for marine spatial planning.
In a new project, this framework is now to be used for the purpose of generating basis for inter-municipal comprehensive planning and marine green infrastructure in Blekinge County.
Ecosystem components for the entire Baltic Proper will be identified and assessed and then weighted locally for Blekinge’s marine and coastal areas (Step 1 of the framework). The results of the assessment are combined with distribution maps for as many of the ecosystem components as possible to identify areas in Blekinge hosting high conservation values. The maps will be merged together according to framework methods followed by analyses of representation (part of Step 2 according to the framework). The project is expected to be completed in October, 2016.