Identify economic activities relevant to the Policy Issue.

Subtask Description:
Identify economic activities relevant to the Policy Issue.

Action points:

List or map the main economic activities that have a relevant human activity and Impact within the ecosystem.
List the main ecosystem services that are relevant to the Policy Issue.
Agree on the economic indicators that are best to use relatively to the selected Policy Issue.
List the main economic drivers of change within the Coastal Zone system (relevant to the Issue).

Area:
Oder/Odra Estuary, Baltic Sea, Germany (& Poland)

Policy Issue:
Water quality and eutrophication.

Human Activities:
Tourism, agriculture, industrial and urban activities, fishing, shipping.

General Information:
The river loads are responsible for the poor water quality in the lagoon and its highly eutrophic state. Temporary anoxia, fish mortality, algae bloom and poor water transparency reflect the poor water quality state. There is a lot of existing information and previous management efforts for the area. At the moment, the German-Polish cross border integration and cooperation receives much more attention than a river basin-coast cooperation and management. The choice of the PI does not reflect the priority setting in the region itself, but political reasons that did not allow tackling of other issues.

Example of Implementation:
Main economic activities:
Industry: large and small scale – small mainly connected with minor activities in the urban areas.

Agriculture: although the land used covers approximately 70% the upper river basin and 58 % of the middle basin, the contribution of the activity to the area’s gross product is only 3.9 %.

Other economic activities: mainly in the urban areas.

Impacts within the ecosystem:
High nutrient loads in the river, responsible for poor water quality and highly eutrophic state in the lagoon.

Occurrence of temporary anoxia events, fish kills, algae blooms and poor water transparency all reflecting the poor water quality state in the Coastal Zone system.

Ecosystem Services provided by the Oder Estuary region:

Value category		Goods and Services	Impacts from the Policy Issue	Economic Valuation Techniques
Use value:	Direct Use Value:	Recreation and tourism:	Eutrophication and its effect on smell, algal blooms (algal mats, foam and toxicity) etc. can affect swimming, sports fishing, boating, diving, sailing and other water sports	Market analysis Planning costs Agricultural economic models and calculations Opportunity costs Travel costs analysis Hedonic pricing Contingent Valuation Method
		Aesthetics:	Pollution can affect the perceived beauty of the area
		Commercial fisheries:	Eutrophication has resulted in the reduction and elimination of spawning grounds of commercially valuable fish and mussels (cod, herring, sprat, plaice, Maraena whitefish, etc.)
		Emission sink:	Nutrient sink from agricultural uses and emission sink for urban and industrial waste water.
	Indirect Use Value:	Water quality maintenance:	The coastal ecosystem filters and removes nutrients (nitrate, phosphate) and pesticides that can contaminate water, as well as toxins and other pollutants	Expenditures for preventive measures Estimation of changes in productivity Restoration costs
			Support of food webs and nutrient cycling.
	Option value:		Preserving biological diversity and genetic materials for future uses.	Contingent Valuation Method Choice experiments

Non use value:	Existence Value:	Unique natural heritage	Preserving species and their habitats.	Contingent Valuation Method Choice experiments
		Responsibility towards future generations

Main economic indicators:
Number of tourist overnight stays, Unemployment rate.

Contact:
Gerald Schernewski, gerald.schernewski@io-warnemuende.de