Sample Thesis
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION, OBJECTIVES AND OUTLINE OF THE THESIS
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Abstract
As marine environments are under increasing anthropogenic pressure, there is a need for decision support systems (DSSs) and management tools that allow to tackle some of the environmental problems associated with this pressure and to allocate the different uses in a sustainable way. Most marine management tools are built around the Driver-Pressure-StateImpact-Response (DPSIR) framework, where indicators are selected which are able to quantify each of these different components. Other available decision support systems are impact assessments, spatial planning, multi-criteria analyses and socio-economic valuations. The ideal DSS should integrate information on both socio-economic and ecological factors to be able to allow balanced, sustainable decisions. While several socio-economic valuation tools have been developed and used for marine management in the past, the integration of biological information in the decision framework was usually done by using ecological indicators. Although there exists a wide variety of literature on ecological indicators, integrative, system-level indicators are still lacking. This asks for the development of a new indicator that integrates all available biological information into one value which expresses the intrinsic value of a certain marine area. The general objectives of this thesis are the development, application and testing of a marine biological valuation methodology that is able to integrate all available biological information of an area into one indicator of intrinsic value. Examples of the application of the protocol to different case study areas are discussed to see how the methodology performs under different circumstances. Next to that, the thesis reviewed the possibilities of using the protocol for the implementation of several European Directives, which relate to nature conservation in the marine environment, and as part of
INTRODUCTION, OBJECTIVES AND OUTLINE OF THE THESIS
-49-
-50-
Abstract
As marine environments are under increasing anthropogenic pressure, there is a need for decision support systems (DSSs) and management tools that allow to tackle some of the environmental problems associated with this pressure and to allocate the different uses in a sustainable way. Most marine management tools are built around the Driver-Pressure-StateImpact-Response (DPSIR) framework, where indicators are selected which are able to quantify each of these different components. Other available decision support systems are impact assessments, spatial planning, multi-criteria analyses and socio-economic valuations. The ideal DSS should integrate information on both socio-economic and ecological factors to be able to allow balanced, sustainable decisions. While several socio-economic valuation tools have been developed and used for marine management in the past, the integration of biological information in the decision framework was usually done by using ecological indicators. Although there exists a wide variety of literature on ecological indicators, integrative, system-level indicators are still lacking. This asks for the development of a new indicator that integrates all available biological information into one value which expresses the intrinsic value of a certain marine area. The general objectives of this thesis are the development, application and testing of a marine biological valuation methodology that is able to integrate all available biological information of an area into one indicator of intrinsic value. Examples of the application of the protocol to different case study areas are discussed to see how the methodology performs under different circumstances. Next to that, the thesis reviewed the possibilities of using the protocol for the implementation of several European Directives, which relate to nature conservation in the marine environment, and as part of