Assessment Framework to Determine Ecological Feasibility of Multi-Use Platforms

Environmental Impact Assessments EIAs of MUCLs are not only necessary but are also required by the local authorities for approval for commercial exploitation The combination of offshore platforms with joint uses eg aquaculture tourism etc will most probably lead to a reduced impact on the environment when compared to the situation where each component is installed independently This task aims to develop an assessment framework to guide the ecological evaluation of the added value of MultiUse Platforms in Europe Standard tools such as EIAs local scale will be included in an ecosystem services ESs approach By evaluating the impact of MUCLs on marine ES it will be possible to map the impacts on the marine ecosystem on a larger regional scale but also to evaluate the interactions between impacts To validate the impact on a global scale LCA analysis is generally usedBesides environmental impact a holistic approach can be used to include social impact WP5 and economic impacts WP3 of MUCLs The assessment framework will provide guidelines on the identification of the hot spots in addition guidance on the collection of relevant cost data and methods for their estimation if not available eg transferred from other sites This task will produce a deliverable D42 on the UNITED Assessment Framework to Determine Ecological Feasibility of MultiUse Platforms