Samenvatting

Coastal and marine ecosystems are subject to threats of many anthropogenic pressures. This report presents a first attempt to adapt a method in order to quantify and spatially visualize the distribution and intensity of cumulative anthropogenic pressures for the Alcúdia Bay on Majorca. The applied method takes account of the sensitivity of different ecosystems and their components to a range of different anthropogenic pressures. The quantification of cumulative anthropogenic pressure in the Alcúdia Bay was visualized on a high resolution map (with 25m-by-25m cells). The quantification of cumulative pressures is based on data layers of anthropogenic pressures, ecosystems and their components as well as quantification of the vulnerability of ecosystems. For the quantification, 25 distinct pressure layers, 10 ecosystem layers and 250 ecosystem-pressure combination values as judgements of the vulnerability of ecosystems by 11 experts (marine scientists and ecosystem experts of the Balearic Islands) are incorporated. The classification of anthropogenic pressures follows the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive which requires member states to assess the level of human impacts on their marine waters. The resulting cumulative anthropogenic pressure index and its visualisation aim to provide a first approach to fulfil the requirements of the EU directive. The spatial visualisation of cumulative anthropogenic pressures shows that the highest index were in the south-western area of the bay, close to the touristic centre of Alcúdia. The lowest index values were found further eastward and towards the open sea. The result can be regarded as consistent with the population densities along the coastline.