Baltic Sea Impact Index (BSII)
Short description
The Baltic Sea Impact Index is an assessment component that describes the potential cumulative burden on the environment in different parts of the Baltic Sea. The BSII is based on georeferenced datasets of human activities (36 datasets), pressures (18 datasets) and ecosystem components (36 datasets), and on sensitivity estimates of ecosystem components (so-called sensitivity scores) that combine the pressure and ecosystem component layers, created in http://www.helcom.fi/helcom-at-work/projects/holas-ii project. Cumulative impacts are calculated for each assessment unit (1 km2 grid cells) by summing all pressures occurring in the unit for each ecosystem component. Highest impacts are found from the cells where both are abundant, but high impacts can be caused also by a single pressure if there are diverse and sensitive habitats in the grid cell. All data sets and methodologies used in the index calculations are approved by all HELCOM Contracting Parties in review and acceptance processes. This data set covers the time period 2011-2016. Please scroll down to "Lineage" and visit http://stateofthebalticsea.helcom.fi/cumulative-impacts/ for more info.
Point of contact
HELCOM Secretariat
data@helcom.fi
Spatial extent
['7.82333', '33.858228', '52.502121', '66.430213']
Type
dataset
Metadata information
Identifier
Keywords
Oceanographic geographical features ; GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ;

pressure ; environmental assessment ; environmental impact ; GEMET ;

MADS ; HOLAS2 ;

Resource provider(s)
HELCOM Secretariat
data@helcom.fi

Lineage
The Baltic Sea Impact index (BSII) was first applied in the Initial HELCOM Holistic Assessment of Ecosystem Health (HELCOM 2010a), building on concepts described by Halpern et al. (2008). The concepts were subsequently developed further for the eastern parts of the North Sea by the HARMONY project (Andersen et al. 2013), which has developed a HARMONY Pressure & Impact Mapper software (Stock 2016). The "summing method" used in BSII gives an overview of the areas which can be expected to be under high impacts based on that there are several ecosystem components being impacted. It was agreed during the HOLAS II process that the input pressure layers should be in numerical balance between different types of anthropogenic pressures, and therefore, human activity data layers being proxies for pressures should be aggregated when they reflect the same pressure. Temporal characteristics of the pressures are taken into account in the data processing, by designing the spatial data sets so that they more accurately represent cumulating or temporary pressures. These aggregated pressure layers follow the indicative list given in the Table 2a of the revised the Marine Strategy Framework Direction (MSFD) Annex III. More detailed information how these aggregation are made is available in the metadata of invidual datasets. Baltic Sea Impact Index has been calculated with a ArcGIS toolbox, developed at the HELCOM Secretariat, following the concepts described by Helpern et al. (2008). Aggregated pressure layers used in the calculation: - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/50a19d2e-bc8a-40f3-a786-9e26274778a6 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/8e1389bc-ba28-480f-b7a6-f55fc43dde16 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/b836a414-bf41-4c6b-858b-e17794c8674e - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/3136cb2c-34da-4d10-be58-84a8af796123 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/eb068fd4-b4db-4b1e-9958-106ca19ccccd - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/9026c20f-eac0-4d51-adcc-db9034c3ec49 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/e31c435c-0603-43d9-8d28-c61b04343e89 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/8e73d7ab-d683-41f5-87ad-e97445e8eee5 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5e407922-40c9-4844-9c77-ca86e086d491 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/eab6ba26-4914-4a22-b217-e8ff6173019f - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/763adb5c-ece6-4cb7-8379-b9b1e65a6a83 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/dff023a4-ad42-4a38-ade9-b4fd1194c79d - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/dbb81716-6cc0-4f41-8103-2f06dfb17b6c - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/65deb854-a296-4ee2-97f7-ec59b0500dcb - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/05e325f3-bc30-44a0-8f0b-995464011c82 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/ea0ef0fa-0517-40a9-866a-ce22b8948c88 - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5e982b25-8110-4095-b6db-619947f52f4e - http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/bbf73bb1-38b0-45af-928a-17635dbd8c51 For use in the BSII method, 36 ecosystem component layers have been developed and agreed through the Contracting Parties’ data approval process.The final sensitivity scores used for the BSII are a combination of the results of the expert survey and results of a literature review. Browse through the http://metadata.helcom.fi/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/search?facet.q=keyword%2Fecosystem%2520component&resultType=details&any=ecosystem%20component&fast=index&_content_type=json&from=1&to=20&sortBy=title&sortOrder=reverse datasets used in the BSII calculation. Step-wise description of the working phases of the BSII method: 1. Definition of the assessment area 2. Listing and defining human activities and consequent pressures in the Baltic Sea 3. Listing and defining ecosystem components in the Baltic Sea 4. Decisions on time scales 5. Collecting the spatial data for Baltic Sea 6. Preparation of the GIS files 7. Aggregation of pressure data layers 8. Definition of the assessment unit 9. Estimation of the habitat and species sensitivity 10. Estimation of confidence 11. Calculating the index 12. Outcomes of the index 13. Validation Additional info on developing the BSII can be found http://stateofthebalticsea.helcom.fi.