An integrated Pan-European perspective on coastal Lagoons management through a mosaic-DPSIR approach

A decision support framework for the management of lagoon ecosystems was tested using four European Lagoons: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), Mar Menor (Spain), Tyligulskyi Liman (Ukraine) and Vistula Lagoon (Poland/Russia). Our aim was to formulate integrated management recommendations for European lagoons. To achieve this we followed a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State Change-Impacts-Responses) approach, with focus on integrating aspects of human wellbeing, welfare and ecosystem sustainability. The most important drivers in each lagoon were identified, based on information gathered from the lagoons’ stakeholders, complemented by scientific knowledge on each lagoon as seen from a land-sea perspective. The DPSIR cycles for each driver were combined into a mosaic-DPSIR conceptual model to examine the interdependency between the multiple and interacting uses of the lagoon. This framework emphasizes the common links, but also the specificities of responses to drivers and the ecosystem services provided. The information collected was used to formulate recommendations for the sustainable management of lagoons within a Pan-European context. Several common management recommendations were proposed, but specificities were also identified. The study synthesizes the present conditions for the management of lagoons, thus analysing and examining the activities that might be developed in different scenarios, scenarios which facilitate ecosystem protection without compromising future generations.


Drivers (Ria de Aveiro): Population, tourism and related activities
Responses: Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Increase civic awareness and improve local participation Promote high-end, sustainable tourism: Improve or create new infrastructure: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: Improve surveillance and law enforcement (e.g. recreational fishing, hunting resources and their habitats); Better management of touristic activities.
Promote ecotourism, gastronomic tourism; Better overall promotion of area as a whole and product labelling (e.g. salt); Support traditional activities (traditional boats " ", salt production, reeds and " " collection); Create intermodal connections to promote easy and fast transportation by e.g. train, boat and bike hire; Encourage elite tourism in the region.
Infrastructure to improve tourism offer for beach recreation, transport, parking areas; Monitor lead in specific water lines to evaluate the origin: industrial or from hunting.

moliceiros moliço
Positive Impacts: Several attractions for different tourism sectors (ecotourism, recreational hunting, sports, traditional festivals -e.g. " " race, eel and Aveiro sweet-eggs, codfish, lamprey, among other festivals; Employment, wealth creation (local economy stimulated); Sustainable touristic activities have potential to growth; Ria products are elements of local cultural identity (e.g. salt, fish and shellfish resources).

moliceiros
Negative Impacts: Salt-works and " " collection are declining activities, with low economic expression; Increase of motorboats and jet skis may cause imbalance in the system; Lack of investment in tourism; Lack of information and promotion of Ria as a whole, with information and activities mostly restricted to central channels of Aveiro.
moliço State change: Great number of habitats supporting great biological diversity and several protected areas, habitats and species; Abandonment of traditional activities (degradation of salt pans); Classified as reasonable good state of environmental preservation (only 2 areas were con-sidered vulnerable with regard to eutrophication); Possible lead contamination in specific water line (hunting); Great offer for sport and recreational activities (kitesurf, diving, sailing, biking, tracking); São Jacinto population isolation associated to deficiency in lagoonal transport.

Pressures:
High urban/touristic growth in coastal areas and expansion to areas with great ecological value; Misuse of infrastructure and lack of users' awareness; Excessive speed of motor boats and jet skis; Recreational hunting duck-resources; Beach tourism, sport activities.

Pressures:
Fragmented landscape (traditional smallholdings and impoverishment of the salt pan landscape); Water needs/supply; Conflict of interest between these drivers and others (harbour and port related): Diffuse pollution: nutrient loading; Point source pollution: nutrients (<10%), contaminants of potential concern and emergent pollutants; Possible introduction of pathogenic agents in the bypass of oyster seeds, non-indigenous species (e.g. ) and fish juveniles from nurseries to aquaculture Economic value of the drivers Ruditapes philippinarum ; .

State change:
Site-specific vulnerable areas with regard to nutrient concentration; Changes in water quality inside the lagoon (spatial variability); Site-specific increase of biodiversity -" " green infrastructure; Presence of biotoxins; Increased primary sector activity for additional income; Presence of certified Marinhoa breed (indigenous cattle species in the Baixo Vouga Lagunar marsh area); Decline of rice fields (small traditional rice wetlands); Proliferation of non-indigenous species in the lagoon (e.g. ) bocage phillippinarum .

Ruditapes
Responses: Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Unique local management structure: Increase civic and environmental awareness: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: Optimization of water use:

Restoration measures:
Improve surveillance to apply legislation and minimize negative impacts in the environment; Contribute to implement WFD and other legislation in vigour; Integrate and standardize management plans; Improve local participation, engage different stakeholders and representatives of other drivers -fishermen, aquaculture, agriculture and port interests; Consider vulnerable areas for specific monitoring programs and management measures; Improve the procedures to monitor biotoxins; Improve wastewater treatment plants; Implement programs for a sustainable use of water resources.
Restore and clean the small drainage channels of " "

Baixo Vouga Lagunar
Improve or create new infrastructure: Complete the Baixo Vouga dike.

Positive Impacts:
Employment; Wealth creation (improve local and national economy, exportations); Supports other economic activities (e.g. preparation and processing industry, storage, transport and distribution, marketing, business support services); Additional income; Higher habitat complexity with associated biodiversity increase (amphibian, reptile, otter, …); Negative Impacts: ; Habitat loss (e.g. saltpans -valuable habitats for waders) Decrease potential for ecotourism and cultural heritage (decreased traditional activities and saltpans conversion); Temporarily bivalves harvesting interdicted due to biotoxins; Surface runoff of nutrients, contaminants of potential concern and emergent pollutants: Lack of strategic planning with regard to the drivers; Biodiversity loss associated to the rice field wetlands; Competition between native and non-indigenous clam species (e.g. vs ) Alteration in sediments dynamics (erosion and deposition dynamics); Conflict of interest between this driver and others (fishermen, aquaculture, agriculture and port interests).

Ruditapes
State change: Changes in the system's hydrodynamics: increases in tidal water velocity, water turbidity and channel depth, changes in tidal prism and light penetration; Alterations of water physicochemical characteristics; Decline in intertidal area, mudflats, seagrass meadows and salt--marshes; Nutrient cycling modified related to loss of seagrasses; Increase of the saltwater flooding period, surface slat water intrusion, salinization of agricultural areas (e.g. baixo vouga); Impoverishment of sediments bed and modifications in sediment dynamics.

Responses:
Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Unique local management structure: Increase civic awareness and improve local participation: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: Improve or create new infrastructure: Improve the lagoon's navigability: Contribute to implement WFD; Settlement of plan for dredging and its surveillance; Revise the current legislation; Integrate management plans and coordinate the management of the human activities in the lagoon; engage different stakeholders and representatives of the drivers -fishermen, aquaculture, agriculture and port (e.g. Polis Litoral, Farming association, Coastal Action Group, Intermunicipal Community, Association of Producers and Marnotos, Natural Reserve of Dunes of S. Jacinto); develop a decisionsupport tool for management strategies, taking into account biolo-gical, water quality and hydrodynamic models of the intertidal seagrass communities; sustainable infrastructure for maritime transportation and to control currents and water velocity; e.g. channels' navigability.
Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation; Supports other economic activities (e.g. industry, including fish processing, storage, transport and distribution, marketing, business support services); Maritime traffic. Negative Impacts: Habitat loss and fragmentation (e.g. saltmarsh, seagrass, typical landscape -" "); Biodiversity decrease (biological resources dependent on saltmarsh and seagrass); Decreased protection against erosion; Changes in ecosystem functioning (decrease settling of fine sediments, decrease nutrient retention; Collapse of abandoned salt-works; Salinization of land: Loss of agriculture land and ecological succession to halophytes plants. bocage

Pressures:
Professional and recreational fishing, bait digging Increased pressure on communities of fish, shellfish and bait -dwindling stocks Unreported catches, sold directly to restaurants Illegal fishing gears Lack of vigilance (especially recreational fishing) and lack of punishment for defaulters (illegal fishing) Conflict of interest between these drivers and others (port, harbour, maritime transport) Economic value of the drivers State change: Fish, shellfish and bait decrease (fishing pressure and illegal activities) Impoverishment of sediments bed Non-target species decrease (due to illegal trawling e.g. cockle, clams) Increase of younger and older people looking for additional income and increased number of women due to unemployment associated to economic crisis

Responses:
Better overall regulation, law enforcement Unique local management structure: Increase civic and environmental awareness: RTD activities, improvement of knowledge to reduce uncertainty: : Regulate catches; Improve surveillance and law enforcement for illegal fishing gears, unreported catches, recreational fishing); Target species quota restrictions related to quantity, size at catch and compliance with shellfishing ban periods; Integrate and standardization management plans; Improve local participation; Engage different stakeholders and representatives of the other driversfishermen, aquaculture, agriculture and port interests; Specific monitoring programmes and management measures for vulnerable areas; Create protected breeding areas within lagoon; Implement studies on the lagoon's carrying capacity and socio-economic importance for the driver and improve the procedures related to the monitoring of biotoxins.
Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation (local and national economy); Local socio-cultural identity; Additional income to overcome economic difficulties and unemployment Supports other economic activities (e.g. fish, shellfish processing industry, storage, transport and distribution, marketing, business support services) Attraction for tourists (recreational fishing). Negative Impacts: ; ; ; ; Parallel economy (unreported catches) Overall biodiversity decrease Commercial species decline Potential overfishing cannot be ascertained Loss of important ecological processes and functions (e.g. bioturbation, ecosystem engineering); Potential increase of non-licensed catches and gears to overcome economic crisis.
Supplementary Figure S1. DPSIR cycles for the drivers of Ria de Aveiro. A) Population, tourism and related activities; B) Aquaculture, agriculture and livestock; C) Harbour, port and maritime transport; D) Fish, shellfish and bait catches; E) Historical contamination associated to the mercury industry.
Supplementary Figure S2. Mosaic-DPSIR for Ria de Aveiro, with emphasis on the drivers with higher socialeconomical expression in the lagoon, showing interactions among DPSIR cycles (dotted arrows), the influence of the natural change on the state (black arrows) and that responses from each cycle should be combined into common integrated responses. DPSIR data from Ria de Aveiro available in the following references:

State change:
Changes in water quality and quantity Historical mercury contaminated sediments in the 2Km inner Laranjo basin Macrobenthic community changes along the mercury contamination gradient in Laranjo basin: decrease diversity, abundance Site-specific area with higher levels of Tetracloroetileno 2 Drivers (Ria de Aveiro): Industry (historical contammination) Responses: Better overall regulation, law enforcement:

Optimization of water use:
Contribute to implement WFD and other EU environmental policies for reducing toxic contamination, EU ban of TBT; Emergency plan for the reduction of point source pollution due to accidents; Upgrade or improve industry wastewater treatment plants beyond the requirements of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive.
Positive Impacts: Employment, Wealth creation; Supports other economic activities (e.g. port activities, storage, transport and distribution, marketing, business support services). Negative Impacts: Benthic fauna (crabs, shellfish, bait) contamination in a site-specific area; Possibility of contaminated sediments resuspension in site specific areas after large floods.  Assess the lagoon's response to environmental stressors and resilience to eutrophication impacts using lagoon's resources (jellyfish); : Standardize management plans and responsible entities (e.g. jurisdiction limits for different authorities are not clear enough).

Responses: Better overall regulation, law enforcement
Promote high-end, sustainable tourism: Increase civic and environmental awareness: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: Unique local management structure Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation (local economy stimulated); Sustainable tourism activities have potential to growth, i.e. great number of habitats and landscape supporting biological diversity; several protected areas and species; Safe beaches with no dangers around; traditional activities (salt-works). Negative Impacts: Overcrowding due to boosted development; Loss of area for croplands and fertile soils; Biodiversity decline; Protected natural areas and habitats threatened; Disturbance to nesting, migration and wintering of aquatic bird populations; Problems with waste management, wastewater and traffic; Degradation of water quality and ecological condition of the lagoon; Increased risk of natural disasters (e.g. flash-flood of greater intensity); Damage to dune systems and extensive beaches; Habitat loss and the lagoon's completion by sand replenishment.

State change:
Eutrophication: great amounts of nitrate, phosphate and ammonium, especially in summer in water and sediments -overall water quality decrease; Presence of waste; Acoustic and light pollution; Loss and fragmentation of natural habitats of high ecological values; Spread of macroalgae / Replacement of seagrass by the algae; Allocthonous jellyfish blooms; Changes in infiltration/runoff process in the basin; Changes in sediment dynamics.

Pressures:
High urban/tourism growth -Invasion of the marine-land public domain; Degradation of landscape and protected areas; Seasonality -high population density in summer (10-fold ); Urban wastewater effluents (untreated or insufficiently treated water); Diffuse pollution and point source pollution; Increased water sport activities and number of boats; Increasing water needs; Sand replenishment of beaches. Implement programmes for a sustainable use of water resources; Improve wastewater treatment plants.
: Better management of human activities; Contribute to implement WFD.
Assess the lagoon's response to envi-ronmental stressors and resilience to eutrophication impacts using lagoon's resources (jellyfish).
: need for rehabilitation measures. : Integrate and standardize management plans.
Improve agricultural technology and practices to reduce the amount of pollutants reaching the groundwater; Change agriculture production systems (dry crops and/or highly profitable crops with lower water requirements).
Increase public & end-users awareness; Improve local participation.

Positive Impacts:
Employment and wealth creation (Campo de Cartagena is one of the most productive and profitable agricultural areas in Europe). Negative Impacts: Decline of macrophyte Loss of natural biodiversity; Degradation of water quality and ecological condition in the lagoon; Potential negative impacts on tourism and fishing; Habitat loss of natural habitats with high ecological value (saline steppe); Natural protected areas threatened. Marine water intrusion into the aquifers (drought).

Cymodocea nodosa;
State change: Eutrophication; Primary production increase by macroalgae and decline of macrophyte Seasonal allocthonous jellyfish blooms Site-specific area with sediment deterioration (OM accumulation, anoxia, fish decrease); Habitat loss and fragmentation (e.g. saline steppe); Groundwater overexploitation; Rise in superficial phreatic levels; Increased water flows into the wetlands; Site-specific groundwater contamination.

Pressures:
Dredging activities -enlargement of channel; Hydrodynamic changes (increase water renewel rates); Point source pollution: nutrients and contaminants of potential concern; Changes in the coastal line.

el Estacio
Responses: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty:

Better overall regulation, law enforcement
Improve knowledge about the effect of the gradual species change on the stability of the ecosystem.
: integrate and standardize management plans and guidelines. .

Positive Impacts:
Employment and Wealth creation; Navigation across the lagoon. Negative Impacts: Increase of non-native species populations; Degradation of water quality and ecological condition in the lagoon; Decline of macrophyte and associated biodiversity; Changes in the food chains within the lagoon -new trophic organization; Declining stocks of traditional fishing species.

State change:
Decreasing water salinity and temperature to less extreme ranges; Decrease in fish numbers and alterations in fish structure assemblages (decline of native species); Colonisation and increase of new Mediterranean species and most probably of the invasive macroalgae ; Loss and fragmentation of natural habitats; Acoustic pollution; Impoverishment of macrobenthic communities; Impoverishment of sediment beds and modifications in the sediment dynamics.

Drivers (Mar Menor) Fish and shellfish catches
State change: Fish and shellfish decrease; High biological productivity; Changes in the estuarine trophic structure.

Responses:
Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Increase civic and environmental awareness: -Unique local management structure

Measures to control jellyfish
Control and regulation of illegal fishing, non-traditional fishing activity. Stimulate traditional fishing arts (e.g. ) environ mental education/Sensitization program.
: integrate and standardize management plans, provide guidelines; (already in place)

Las Encañizadas
Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation; Maintenance of local socio-cultural identity.

Negative Impacts:
Commercial fish species decline -Over-exploitation; Changes in biodiversity and ecological functions.

Pressures:
Local professional fishing; Increased pressure on fish populations of economic interest, dwindling stocks -fishing beyond system's carrying capacity; Illegal fishing (1/4 of nets, 30kms long); Insufficient surveillance.

Drivers (Mar Menor): Historical mining
Responses: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: Unique local management structure:

Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Restoration measures:
Monitor the levels of metals associated to historical contamination in the biota to prevent possible metal transfer to humans; Assess the lagoon's response to environmental stressors.
Integrate and standardize management plans and guidelines.
Contribute to implement the WDF Need for rehabilitation measures to reduce toxic contamination, phytoremediation techniques, mining residual ponds stabilization.

State change:
Increase of heavy metal concentrations in water, sediments and biota (food chain), especially after heavy rains; Decrease of pH levels of drainage water inputs into the lagoon; Changes in benthic communities; Sediment colmatation.
Degradation of water quality and ecological condition in the lagoon Health risk for animals and humans Negative impacts for fishing Local acidification in the mouth of the water courses " " ramblas/wadis  Optimization of water use: Better overall regulation, law enforcement: :
Promote environmental education and improve local participation.
Limit and regulate freshwater withdrawal for filling of ponds and reservoirs at Tyligul river and lagoon drainage basin.
Control the agricultural activity at homestead land; Develop, control and regulate touristic activities; Regulate and legislate hunting and fishing activities; Implement the requirements of environmental legislation.

:
Increase investment in the Park (e.g. information signs for protected areas, stone lined fireplaces, eco-tourism guides and trails, information on region's protected areas, health resorts for balneology and therapeutic mud baths; Create a unified system for sewage.
Integrate and standardize management plans and responsible entities for sustainable development of the area; Better inter-region regulation.
Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation (local economy stimulated); Sustainable touristic activities have potential to growth -great number of habitats and landscape supporting biological diversity; several protected areas and species; therapeutic activities (mud baths); Negative Impacts: Biodiversity decline (e.g. avifauna); Lack of funds to invest; Degradation of water quality and ecological conditions in the lagoon; Competing views and disagreement regarding Landscape Park; Problems with waste management, wastewater treatments; Protected natural areas and habitats threatened.

Pressures:
Urban/tourism growth (e.g. resorts, cottages); Seasonality -high population density in summer; Unregulated touristic activities; Unregulated development of cottage areas, not connected to sewage systems: untreated wastewater effluents; Degradation of landscape and disturbance of protected areas; Illegal sand extraction/excavation; Increase of landfills garbage dumps; Fire occurrence; Point source and diffuse pollution: nutrients and household rubbish; Illegal hunting and fishing (pouching); Increased water needs; Competing views and disagreement regarding Landscape Park; Lack of information signs (for protected areas).

State change:
Eutrophication (seasonal and site-specific areas): hypoxia, periodic fish and hydrobionts kills, reduced water transparency, phytoplankton blooms during summer; Presence of waste; Impoverishment of flora and fauna -e.g. population decline of duck and other avifauna; Loss and fragmentation of natural habitats of great ecological values.

Drivers (Tyligulsky): Agriculture
Responses: Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Unique local management structure: Optimization of water use: , Agriculture production systems and technology: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty:

Increase civic and environmental awareness
Develop water management and monitoring plans according to the WFD.
Integrate and standardize management plans and responsible entities, inter-region regulation.
Implement programs for a sustainable use of water resources according to local atmospheric conditions; Improve waste water treatment facilities/ plants. Implement programmes for a sustainable development of agricutural activities (e.g. crop rotation). Improve knowledge on the lagoon's ecohydrology : Increase public & endusers awareness; Improve local participation; Promote environmental education.

Pressures:
Diffuse pollution: nutrient loading and contaminants of potential concern (e.g. pesticides); Seasonal inflow of suspended sediments, humus and biogenic substances in mineral and organic forms (spring floods and summer storms); Lack of control over farming operations and integrated management of Lagoon catchment area; Water needs/supply (withdrawal of the Tyligul runoff) and consequent changes in water balance (also dependent on other conditions); Creation of a large number of upstream artificial water bodies.

State change:
Eutrophication (seasonal and site-specific areas): Hypoxia; Periodic fish and hydrobionts kills; Reduced water transparency; Phytoplankton and macrophyte blooms during summer; Seasonal low water transparency, increasing water temperature in the surface layer; Decrease floral and faunal diversity; Changes in water balance: runoff deficit due to water management activity; Pesticides increase in the lagoon (wash away from fields).
Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation; Viticulture and winery may be used as an additional recreational activity; Loss of natural biodiversity (fish and other organism decline, avifauna). Negative Impacts: ; .
Seasonal degradation of water quality status of the lagoon (summer) Habitat loss, natural protected areas threatened Supplementary Figure 6S. Mosaic-DPSIR for the Tylisgulskyi Lagoon, with emphasis on the drivers with higher social-economical expression in the lagoon, showing interactions among DPSIR cycles (dotted arrows), the influence of the natural change on the state (black arrows) and that responses from each cycle should be combined into common integrated responses.

Drivers (Tyligulsky): Artificial channel (connection with sea)
Pressures: Unregulated water exchange with the sea; Decrease in fresh water inflow from the catchment area, and the inflow of salt waters under intensive evaporation during summer; Increasing salt content in the lagoon (salting the lagoon); Canal not always operational -absence of water exchange -sand often accumulates (e.g. end of summer); Changes in the bird nesting conditions (flooding or admittance of predators and humans due to low water level); Possibility of flooding of conventional bird nesting sites; Possibility of acceleration of erosion and landslide processes on the lagoon banks.

State change:
Replacement of the dominating brackish water fish species by sea species; Macrophytobenthos and macrozoobenthos changed towards an increase of marine species (freshwater species declined, persisting only in the mouth of the intermittent Tyligul river); Substantially lower species diversity; Lack of systematic hydroecological monitoring impedes the development of integrated management plans; No knowledge with regard to hydroecology in order to implement adequate management plans.

Responses:
Unique local management structure: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: (to improve lagoon's conenctivity): Operability assurance and control for the artificial channel; Reconstruct and maintain the uninterrupted func-tioning of the channel linking the lagoon and the Black Sea and from river to the lagoon.
integrate and standardize management plans and responsible entities for sustainable development of the area, inter-region regulation); Establish coastal protection zones at the place and maintain requirements of environmental legislation.
Develop operating conditions for the artificial channel along the year using knowledge on its influence for the lagoon's ecohydrology.

Improve or create new infrastructure
Positive Impacts: ; Fisheries (nursery function of the lagoon -entrance of marine young fish) Stabilization of water level; Prevents water level decline at the end of the summer; Prevents shoaling of the shallow areas of the lagoon -sandbanks; Renewal of polluted lagoonal waters by relatively pure sea waters and intensification of water exchange between the deep parts of the lagoon that are divided by shallow dams. Negative Impacts: Risk of becoming an hyperhaline water body; Biodiversity loss (freshwater and brackish water species); Processes dependent on macrophytobenthos and zoobenthic communities may be compromised; Volume and value of commercial catches of fish have significantly reduced; Competing views on channel. Better overall regulation, law enforcement; Unique local management structure; RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty; Increase civic and environmental awareness; Promote high-end, sustainable tourism; Optimization of water use; Improve or create new infrastructure; Improve the lagoon's connectivity; Improve agriculture production systems. Local administration more coordinated; need for regulation of tourism activity; Need to "speed up" bureaucratic procedures related with tourism.
Eco-tourism, including traditional activities; Allow international transportation routes.
Improve transport/navigation within and across the lagoon. environmental education and improve local participation.
implementation and improvement of waste-water treatment plants.
develop coastal infrastructure to implement sustainable touristic activities and improve tourism offer (e.g. beach recreation, public transports, roads).
: revitalization of the sou-thern areas on the Polish side. use natural resources to mitigate eutrophication (reeds, filter feeders); need for detailed assessment of the impact of the driver.

State change:
Eutrophication, especially in summer: high nutrient levels, low transparency; cyanobacteria blooms; Decrease of water and sediment quality; Local beach disturbance (lack of maintenance, illegal mud dumping and pier construction).

Pressures:
Increased population density (seasonally and locally) due to uneven touristic activity; Waste water discharges (sometimes with insufficient treatment or not treated); Point source pollution: contamination in the lagoon site-specific areas; Higher touristic pressure in summer -seasonality (Polish side); New investments into the tourism infrastructure; Non-regulated tourism; Incidental illegal dumping (catchment area) and mud dumping (lagoon).

Positive Impacts:
Sustainable tourism activities with economic potential to growth; Employment and wealth creation (local economy stimulated). Negative Impacts: Seasonal degradation of water quality and ecological condition in the lagoon; Potentially more pollutants in the food web, including fish.

Pressures:
Diffused pollution: nutrients and pesticides from agricultural and livestock sources; Traditional value of the driver: arable land covers a substantial part of the drainage area; sector is important, but rather because of tradition and lack of alternative than the economic value it generates.

State change:
Eutrophication (trophic status of the lagoon polytrophic/eutrophic): high nutrient levels, low transparency; cyanobacteria blooms; periodic oxygen deficits at the bottom -site specific lower invertebrate diversity and seasonal decrease in density (deeper areas); Long-term reduction of submerged vegetation; Decreased water quality status and sediments; Overall ecological status of Polish part (the only to be studied under WFD) classified as bad to poor.

Positive Impacts:
Employment, Wealth creation Social-cultural identity. ; . Negative Impacts: ; Degradation of water quality and ecological status in the lagoon Impact of the lagoon degradation on the coastal waters quality of the Baltic Sea; Negative impacts on tourism -less attractive for recreation use; Agro-tourism growth is limited due to the current water quality

Responses:
Better overall regulation, law enforcement: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: -Transboundary harmonized management structure

Optimization of water use
Contribute to implement the WFD, CAP, Nitrate Directive, Marine Strategy (Polish side only) and respective national laws on Russian side; Implement better and joint monitoring programs for the assessment of the lagoon's response to environ mental stressors, including weather changes; Promote resilience to eutrophication impacts using lagoon's resources (e.g. reeds, filter feeder bivalves); : better and coordinated management, PL inter-provinces cooperation, and PL-RU transboundary cooperation; : implement and improve wastewater treatment plants.

Pressures:
Local oil and acoustic pollution and ship waves action within the canal area; Continuous dredging of the Baltiysk Strait -to maintain a constant depth of lagoon inlet (the only connection with sea, Russian part); Hydrodynamic changes (dredging of navigational channels across the lagoon); Nutrient resuspension (with very limited spatial extent in comparison to the wind driven resuspension); Point source pollution.

State change:
Salt intrusion (Vistula lagoon, Pregola river); Changes in species composition due to the change of salinity regime; Local intensification of coastal erosion; Potential increase of chemical pollution of water and sediments.

Responses:
Transboundary harmonized management structure: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty: Better overall regulation, law enforcement: Improve the lagoon's navigability: better and coordinated regulations (e.g. PL inter-provinces cooperation and overall PL-RU transboundary cooperation); need for joint water quality monitoring of the lagoon and joint activites on transboundary impact assessment of the driver. application of magement plans prepared under the Natura 2000 requirements and Marine Spatial Planning Regulations; Implementation of ballast water treatment ot prevent invaive species improve navigational traffic within the lagoon.
Positive Impacts: Employment, wealth creation; Transport and navigation across the lagoon (navigation canal); Water exchange with the Gulf of Gdansk. Negative Impacts: Potential threats for drinking watr sypply system for the Kaliningrad city (salt intrusion); Potential changes in species composition due to the salinity regime; Potentially more pollutants in the food web, including in fish.

Pressures:
Fishing; Selective exploitation of fish populations with economic interest (e.g. herring, eel, pikeperch); High levels of bycatch of non-targeted species.
Positive Impacts: Employment, Wealth creation; Negative Impacts: Unsustainable exploitation of specific fish resources; Decrease of eel fishery in Polish side due to the break in stocking programme lasting many years; Change in biodiversity, including the impact of bycatch.

State change:
Depletion of fish stocks -e.g. eel, pikeperch; Changes in the existing food web.

Responses:
Better overall regulation, law enforcement: RTD activities, improve knowledge to reduce uncertainty Transboundary harmonized management structure: Increase civic and environmental awareness:

Improve or create new infrastructure:
Contribute to the successful enforcement and harmonization of fish regulations between Polish-Russian (PL-RU); More efficient system of fisheries control.
: Reduce uncertainty on fishing levels; cocoordinated monitoring of fish stocks; Joint activities on transboundary impact assessment of the driver.
Improve the PL-RU cooperation for the maintenance and sustainability of fish stocks; Joint management measures leading to the exploitation within self biological limits (especially important for eel stocking programme).
Increase public & end-users awareness; Improve local participation; Promote environmental education.
Improve infrastructure related with fisheries (e.g. coolers, fish processing facilities, access to energy, harbours' infrastructure). Control the population size of cormorants.