Abstract

The Adriatic-Ionian region (ADRION Region) shows strong development in terms of urban expansion in coastal and inland areas as well as increasing maritime traffic and offshore hydrocarbon extraction activities. A serious risk of pollution arises from hazardous substances requiring reliable and coherent monitoring and assessment programmes. EU Directives (WFD - Water Framework Directive, MSFD - Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and Barcelona Convention protocols, aim to assess the level of pollution with the objective to implement measures to prevent and/or mitigate impacts on the marine environment. This high level integration process has to be based on common and agreed protocols for monitoring of contaminants. Aiming to share best practices to encourage a harmonized implementation of monitoring and assessment of contaminants, an extensive review of monitoring and analytical protocols adopted by six EU and non-EU countries along the Adriatic and Ionian seas was carried out in the framework of the Interreg Adrion project HarmoNIA. This paper presents a methodological proposal to define a common protocol for the evaluation of the metal contamination of seawater, sediment and biota. Contaminants have been chosen following preliminary consultations among countries of the ADRION area, considering objectives of WFD and MSFD, as well as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures for offshore platforms. Information was gathered relative to matrix characteristics and quality assurance/quality control of the analytical performance (sample preservation, analytical methodology, reference materials, limit of detection and limit of quantification, accuracy, reproducibility, etc.). The comparison of information provided by laboratories of nine institutions highlighted the request for harmonization in terms of sampling procedures, matrix characterization, preservation procedures, analytical methods and LOQ values. Although appropriate environmental quality standards for biota and sediment matrices should be established at national level and also through regional and sub-regional cooperation, as required by the WFD and MSFD, the proposed LOQ values, even if challenging, represent a benchmark and a stimulus to optimize analytical performance, to ensure the best level of protection to the coastal and offshore environment in the ADRION Region.

Highlights

  • According to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC, 2008, European Union Member States should develop and follow a common approach in environmental monitoring at the level of marine region or sub-region, as well as in definition and assessment of good environmental status (GES)

  • The comparison between sampling, analytical and QA protocols adopted by laboratories of nine institutions from six countries of the ADRION Region revealed high level of heterogeneity, pointing out the necessity to develop common and harmonized protocols for monitoring procedures to be applied for the assessment of good environmental status, in order to fulfill the requirements of both Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC, 2008 and UNEP/MAP Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme (IMAP)

  • A general lack of homogeneity emerged from the investigation on the sampling and preservation protocols and on the analytical methods used by various laboratories responsible for research and monitoring of heavy metals in different environmental compartments in the ADRION region, due to the lack of completeness of some information

Read more

Summary

Introduction

According to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC, 2008, European Union Member States should develop and follow a common approach in environmental monitoring at the level of marine region or sub-region, as well as in definition and assessment of good environmental status (GES). EU Directives (WFD, MSFD), Barcelona Convention protocols (Dumping Protocol, Land Based Sources Protocol LBS, Offshore Protocol, Prevention and Emergency Protocol, Hazardous Wastes Protocol) and control and prevention plans defined at national level aim to assess the level of pollution with the main objective to plan, agree and implement measures to prevent, mitigate or remove impacts on the marine environment Such measures usually require to modify the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario with socio-economic costs on human activities, so coherence and consistency between countries in the monitoring and the assessment methodology is of the utmost importance to avoid different level of environmental protection and application of the precautionary and “polluter pay” principles

Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call