Listening to stakeholders: Development of water quality indicators for transitional environments using satellite data

• Published in: Ocean & coastal management Vol. 253; p. 107140
• Main Authors: Politi, Eirini, Brito, Ana C., Gomes, Mara Ramos, Lebreton, Carole, Falcini, Federico
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2024
• Subjects: European Directives; Remote sensing; Transitional waters; Water quality; Water resource management; European Directives; Transitional waters; Remote sensing; Water quality; Water resource management
• ISSN: 0964-5691; 1873-524X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2024.107140

Transitional waters are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pressures with water quality being a key worldwide issue relevant to human consumption, food production, industry, nature and recreation. Monitoring and maintaining good water quality are enshrined in European policy through the Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and pivotal to fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Remote sensing can provide useful, continuous and synoptic monitoring data and diagnostic tools, however, European Union Member States tend to follow different strategies for their individual reporting, leading to a strong need for tailored-made solutions that work across the continuum of reported water bodies. To address the above, user requirements were collected from interviews with users from 18 local and national stakeholder institutes/organisations in six European countries, leading to a selection of improved satellite-based water quality indicators for coastal and transitional environments. These indicators were developed based on new state-of-the-art remote sensing data and ensure compliance with user-specific monitoring requirements. The suite of remote sensing indicators ranges from those tailored to fulfil spatial planning and water resource management needs of industries and local authorities, to those that help to better understand ecosystem functioning and provide input to European Directives. They use estimates of total suspended matter and chlorophyll-a concentrations and include region-specific mean values, anomalies, percentiles, and trends, among others. A selection of these indicators and other multidisciplinary data were then integrated into a Social-Ecological System Vulnerability Index, aiming to showcase a framework that provides global overviews of transitional systems and highlights hotspots of vulnerability to climate change and other anthropogenic pressure. Here, we describe the approach we followed to maximise involvement of various types of user communities throughout the indicator co-development process, ensuring provision of processed information that meets their water quality assessment needs for water resource management. The co-developed indicators are also presented and discussed from a user perspective.
•Synoptic, continuous water quality information in estuaries and lagoons is sparse.•Consultations key to tailor remote sensing products to different use cases.•Aggregated satellite-based indicators highly relevant to water users and managers.•Transferable chlorophyll and suspended matter indicators developed.•Remote sensing value increased when integrated with socio-economic data.