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Title: LOSS OF NATURAL SEABED AND BENTHIC HABITATS ALONG THE BULGARIAN BLACK SEA COAST AS A CONSEQUENCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
LOSS OF NATURAL SEABED AND BENTHIC HABITATS ALONG THE BULGARIAN BLACK SEA COAST AS A CONSEQUENCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

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Bogdan Prodanov; Valentina Todorova; Lyubomir Dimitrov; Radoslava Bekova
10.5593/sgem2023/3.1/s15.46
10.5593/sgem2023/3.1
1314-2704
978-619-7603-58-3
English
23
3.1
•    Prof. DSc. Oleksandr Trofymchuk, UKRAINE 
•    Prof. Dr. hab. oec. Baiba Rivza, LATVIA
Marine and Ocean Ecosystems
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a framework for collective action in the marine environmental policy established by Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on 17 June 2008. It calls for EU Member States to create national marine strategies to achieve good environmental status (GES) by 2020 or to maintain it in areas where it already exists. Five factors are laid out in Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 for GES assessment in regard to a number of broad habitat types, as two of them were assessed in the article. Criterion D6C1 represents the spatial extent and distribution of physical loss of the natural seabed. Criterion D6C4 estimates the extent of loss of the habitat types resulting from anthropogenic pressures that should not exceed a specified proportion of the natural extent of the habitat types in the assessment areas. These criteria were evaluated for five coastal Marine Reporting Units (MRU) distributed in the Bulgarian sector of the Black Sea. The objective of the study is to evaluate the physical loss of the natural seabed and broad benthic habitat type as a result of coastal infrastructure development in each of the coastal MRUs and for the national Black Sea biogeographic region. The cumulative loss from the 1970s to 2017 was calculated. The period between 1970 and 1983 was chosen as a reliable historical baseline for which 1:5000-scale topographic maps are available. In addition, the study provides estimates of the natural seabed and habitat loss for the long-term period 1970/83 to 2017 and the 6- year assessment period under MSFD 2012 to 2017. GIS procedures include a compilation of vector files of shoreline and MRUs for the assessment periods 1970/83, 2012, and 2017, from which changes were evaluated Criterion D6C1: Spatial extent and distribution of physical loss of the natural seabed. Finally, spatial intersect analysis between seabed loss and broad benthic habitat types allowed assessment of Criterion D6C4: The extent of loss of the habitat type resulting from anthropogenic pressures. The work identified 302 designated hydrotechnical facilities, 33 of which were constructed during the most recent assessment period (2012-2017), which have left a significant negative imprint on the Bulgarian coast. Prominent accumulation of artificial structures was registered along Burgas, Varna, Balchik, and Nessebar. After the 1970s, due to the construction of coastal hydro-technical facilities and port infrastructure, the Bulgarian Black Sea shoreline increased by more than 11%, from 461.9 km (1970/83-2012) to 511.2 km (2012) and to 513.6 km (2017). The MRUs Cape Emine - Cape Maslen and Cape Kaliakra - Cape Galata are the most affected coastal areas by seafloor sealing and land reclamation. Infralittoral sand in Cape Emine - Cape Maslen Nos MRU represents the habitat with the highest absolute loss of 1.43 km2 and of 1.19% as a proportion of the total habitat area. The Infralittoral rock was assessed to have lost the most significant proportion of a broad benthic habitat type along the Varna shoreline - 3.39% (absolute area 0.35 km2), which is getting close to the critical threshold of 5% in the Cape Kaliakra-Cape Galata MRU. GISaided analysis showed that the most impacted broad benthic habitat types at the national scale are the Infralittoral sand and Infralittoral rock, with losses of 1.48 km2 and 0.528 km2, respectively. However, neither of the habitats exceeded the 5% threshold of habitat loss in any of the assessment areas. Finally, this article presented a pilot assessment of geomorphological seabedforms loss. Along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, a distinguished loss was observed on the shallow-water accumulative slope or beach face corresponding to the Infralittoral sand (1.476 km2), Infralittoral mud (0.003 km2), infralittoral mixed sediment (0.02 km2) and infralittoral coarse sediment (0.09 km2). Respectively, the largest loss of abrasion-structural seabed or bench was observed in the Infralittoral rock (0.533 km2).
[1] Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive), http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2008/56/oj
[2] Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 of 17 May 2017 laying down criteria and methodological standards on the good environmental status of marine waters and specifications and standardised methods for monitoring and assessment, and repealing Decision 2010/477/EU, Official Journal of the European Union https://mcc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/ComDec/Com_dec_GES_2017_848_EU.pdf
[3] European Commission, MSFD CIS Guidance Document No. 19, Article 8 MSFD, 2022.
[4] Initial Assessment of the Marine Environmental Status acc. to article 8 of MSFD 2008/56/EC and Regulation on Environmental Protection of Marine Waters, Ministry of Environment and Waters, 2013.
[5] Updated Initial Assessment of the Marine Environmental Status acc. to Art. 8, Art. 9 and Art.10 of MSFD 2008/56/EC, 2021, (https://www.bsbd.org/Marine_env/Second%20assessment_Report_IO-BAS_v1.pdf)
[6] BLKBG_D016-SeabedHabitats, Monitoring Program on Descriptors1,6 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), Black Sea Basin Directorate, Ministry of Environment and Water, 2016 (https://www.bsbd.org/msfd/2016/BLKBGD1,6_ Seabed_Habitats_revised.pdf)
[7] Stancheva M., Coastal Erosion and Protection in Europe - a Comprehensive Overview, Pranzini, E., Wiliams, A.T. (Eds.), 19. Bulgaria, Rutledge Taylor & Francis Group, pp 378-395, 2013.
[8] Stancheva M., Indicative GIS-based segmentation of the Bulgarian Black Sea coastline for risk assessment. Compt. Rend. Acad. Bulg. Sci, 62(10): 1311-1318, 2009.
[9] Stanchev H., Young R., Stancheva M., Integrating GIS and high-resolution orthophoto images for the development of a geomorphic shoreline classification and risk assessment - a case study of cliff/bluff erosion along the Bulgarian coast. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 17(4), pp 719-728, 2013.
[10] Prodanov B., Kotsev I., Lambev T., Bekova R., Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Surveying the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Comptes rendus de l’Academie Bulgarie des Sciences. 73(5), 2020, pp. 666-672, http://doi.org/10.7546/CRABS.2020.05.09
[11] Todorova V., Dimitrov L., Doncheva V., Trifonova E., Prodanov B., Benthic habitat mapping in the Bulgarian Black Sea. Proc. of the Twelfth International Conference on the Mediterranean Coastal Environment MEDCOAST`2015. Varna. Bulgaria, 2015.
[12] EuSeaMap 3, European Marine Observation Data Network (EMODnet) Seabed Habitats initiative, 2019, http://www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/
[13] Peychev V., Peev P., Evolution of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast after the Early Holocene. Publishing house “Slavena”, Varna, 2006, 115 pp. (in Bulgarian)
[14] Prodanov B., Dimitrov L., Lambev T., Mapping of coastal and submarine morphological landforms using Unmanned Aerial Systems and Echo-sounding data, Case study: Bulgarian Black Sea coastal sector between cape Sivriburun and cape Kaliakra, Proc. of 21st International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM`2021, 21(2.1), pp 717-725, 2021, https://doi.org/10.5593/sgem2021/2.1/s11.86.
[15] Trendafilova L., Dechev D., Seabed forms and substrate mapping of the Chernomorets coastal sector, Bulgarian Black Sea, International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference: SGEM, 22(1.1), pp. 29-40. 2022.
[16] Evans D., Aish A., Boon A., Conde S., Connor D., Gelabert E., Parry M., Richard D., Salvati E., Tunesi L., Revising the marine section of the EUNIS Habitat Classification-Report of a workshop held at the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity, 12 & 13 May 2016. ETC/BD report to the EEA, 2016, https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-bd/products/etc-bdreports/ revising_marine_section_eunis_hab_classification
The survey along Burgas coastal area was supported by the research project „Multidisciplinary study of Burgas Bay – MidBay (Composition of a detailed digital model of the bottom relief with analysis of modern geomorphological conditions and archaeological forecasting modeling)“, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, Contract № КП-06-Н34-7/2019.
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https://doi.org/10.5593/sgem2023/3.1/s15.46
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Proceedings of 23rd International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2023
23rd International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2023, 03 - 09 July, 2023
Proceedings Paper
STEF92 Technology
International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM
SWS Scholarly Society; Acad Sci Czech Republ; Latvian Acad Sci; Polish Acad Sci; Russian Acad Sci; Serbian Acad Sci and Arts; Natl Acad Sci Ukraine; Natl Acad Sci Armenia; Sci Council Japan; European Acad Sci, Arts and Letters; Acad Fine Arts Zagreb Croatia; Croatian Acad Sci and Arts; Acad Sci Moldova; Montenegrin Acad Sci and Arts; Georgian Acad Sci; Acad Fine Arts and Design Bratislava; Russian Acad Arts; Turkish Acad Sci.
375-390
03 - 09 July, 2023
website
9169
physical loss of natural seabed, loss of habitat type, benthic broad habitat type, coastal infrastructures, shoreline, Bulgarian Black Sea