Workshop “Environmental Impact of Economic Activities”

In the framework of the MedPartnership, ClimVar and ICZM projects, a workshop was organised at PAP/RAC premises on February 5 to identify indicators for the assessment of impacts of the economic activities found on the Croatian coast on the most important components of the environment. The workshop was attended by 23 experts from various Croatian institutions and organisations deemed relevant for the subject, as well as PAP/RAC.

The work was organised around two tables. One was required by the activity on Economic and Social Assessment (ESA) of the Croatian coast and sea, and designed so as to attribute quantitative values to the indicators, while the other table was descriptive. The first table was discussed in the first part of the workshop where a very open debate allowed the multidisciplinary panel to exchange opinions and contribute to this exercise on the basis of their expertise and experience. The table was slightly modified to include some additional elements identified as important, and numerical values were attributed to the impacts. The expert team will complete the table and send it to the participants for revision. Once completed, the table will be a very useful working tool for further development of the ESA study and for the strategic planning.
    
The afternoon session was dedicated to qualitative analysis of driving forces, pressures and impacts related to different issues important for the sustainable development of the Šibenik-Knin County coastal zone. The aim of the exercise was the definition of specific indicators related to each of the defined issues and pressures, to be used for the preparation of the ICZM Plan of the Šibenik-Knin County, as well as for a better integration and harmonisation with the Climagine results. A number of questions were raised concerning the prepared table, particularly regarding the definition of the pressures and the state of the environment. This is a very complex task and the work was just started on some elements. The participants agreed to continue collaborating on the elaboration of the table through e-mail and other means of direct communication under the guidance of the PAP/RAC team.