The Third Project Partner Meeting of the SEADITO consortium will be held in Santander from 14-16th of October (Spain) at the Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria (FIHAC). The three-day meeting will provide an opportunity to review project progress, exchange expertise, and plan next steps in the development of the SEADITO Project.
The Project Partner Meeting will focus on workshops and collaborative sessions around the following topics:
- Ecosystem Services Evaluation
- What-If-Scenario Toolkit
- Socio-ecological frameworks, models and indicators
- Case study development and stakeholder workshops
- Consortium strategy for scientific exploitation of project results
At the core of SEADITO are seven case studies (see Figure 1), spanning diverse geographic contexts – from local, regional to transnational and Pan-European scales. Within these case studies, different integrated socio-ecological frameworks, models, and indicators will be tested to evaluate the impacts and interactions of human activities with marine ecosystems. The findings will provide valuable insights to support planners and decision-makers working across multiple geographic levels.
The Pan-European Case study
“Oceans and seas play an important role for Europe’s prosperity, sustainability and security,… Action to preserve our oceans is vital, both today and for future generations” (COM(2025) 45 final1).
Europe’s coastal and marine environments are undergoing unprecedented transformations driven by increasing demand for marine resources, intensified exploitation, pollution, and the impacts of climate change. These pressures are leading to the degradation of vulnerable ecosystems that are vital both for human well-being and for ensuring the long-term sustainable use of European Seas. Part of these transformations is also shaped by ocean-based policies and strategies, which influence the capacity of marine socio-ecological systems to deliver goods and benefits. Examples include the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the TEN-E Regulation, the FuelEU (Regulation (EU) 2023/1805), the Common Fisheries Policy and others.
In SEADITO the Pan-European case study developed by FIHAC and UdG (Landscape Analysis and Management Group, Spain) aims to develop a framework for Marine Socio-Ecological Vulnerability Assessment to address how different drivers of change affect marine resources and the coastal communities. The case study places strong emphasis on stakeholder involvement to identify the most pressing challenges facing European seas and to ensure that socio-ecological frameworks and indicators are better integrated with stakeholder knowledge. Over 20 experts from 12 European coastal countries, including academia, research centres, administrations, NGOs and businesses have participated in seabasin-dedicated focus groups (Eastern Atlantic, North-Baltic Sea, Mediterranean and Black Sea) organized by UdG and FIHAC.
Some of the most recurrent challenges identified by stakeholder across European seabasins included increased development of offshore wind energy infrastructure and its environmental, spatial and social consequences, emerging environmental pressures such as underwater noise, climate change effects on coastal communities and marine resources. Furthermore, stakeholders expressed the need of better knowledge on coastal communities’ ability to adapt to changes.
The SEADITO Project Partner Meeting will provide further momentum to the Pan-European case study, with a focus on refining data needs, advancing scenario-based approaches and visualization of socio-ecological demonstrators. Updates from the meeting will be shared in the news section and on LinkedIn in the near future.
Author: Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria