Assessment of contaminant status of indicators of biological effects using CHASE+, Dec. 2019

This data set presents the resulting assessment grid (based on the EEA reference grid) with the classification of chemical status of the transitional, coastal and marine waters in the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), providing a mapping of contamination 'problem areas' and 'non-problem areas' based on measurements of biological effects.



This classification has been performed using the CHASE+ tool, with classifications of the of contaminant status of indicators of biological effects. The status is evaluated in five classes, where NPAhigh and NPAgood are recognised as ‘non-problem areas’ and PAmoderate, PApoor and PAbad are recognised as ‘problem areas’.



Monitoring biological effects is restricted to a few indicators (e.g. imposex) and data coverage is currently limited. Biological effects have thus been addressed in only 134 assessment units, mostly in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the North-East Atlantic Ocean.



This data set underpins the findings and cartographic representations published in the EEA report “Contaminants in Europe’s seas” (No 25/2018). See the mentioned report for further information.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2019-03-06
Date (Publication)
2019-03-21
Edition

01.00

Citation identifier
eea_v_3857_20_km_chase-bioe_p_2009-2016_v01_r00

Citation identifier
DAT-211-en

Point of contact
Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

https://www.eea.europa.eu

Point of contact

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

https://www.eea.europa.eu

Custodian
Spatial representation type
Vector

Spatial resolution

Spatial resolution
20 km

Spatial resolution

Spatial resolution
100 km
Topic category
  • Environment
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W




Temporal extent

Time period
2009-01-01 2016-12-31
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
GEMET

  • biological effect

  • marine ecosystem

  • sea

  • good chemical status

  • ocean

  • marine biology

  • marine biota

  • sea water

  • contamination

  • environment

  • environmental quality

  • aquatic environment

  • indicator-based assessment

Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.

  • Kattegat

  • Celtic Sea

  • Bay of Biscay

  • Baltic Sea

  • North Sea

Spatial scope

  • European

EEA Management Plan

  • 2018 1.6.2

EEA topics

  • Chemicals

  • Seas and coasts

  • Water

  • Biodiversity

  • Pollution

Resource constraints

Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
no limitations to public access

Resource constraints

Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

License CC-BY 4.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).

Associated resource

Association Type
Cross reference
Metadata Reference

Associated resource

Association Type
Cross reference
Metadata Reference

Associated resource

Association Type
Cross reference
Metadata Reference

Associated resource

Association Type
Cross reference
Metadata Reference

Associated resource

Association Type
Cross reference
Metadata Reference
Language
English

Distribution Information

Distribution format

  • SHP

OnLine resource

https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/webdav/datastore/public/eea_v_3857_20_km_chase-bioe_p_2009-2016_v01_r00/

OnLine resource

Direct download

OnLine resource

Contaminants-in-Europes-seas-online-material-INPUT.xlsx

OnLine resource

Contaminants-in-Europes-seas-online-material-RESULTS-final.xlsx

OnLine resource

Contaminants in Europe's seas

Moving towards a clean, non-toxic marine environment. This assessment represents a first attempt to map contamination 'problem areas' and 'non-problem areas' at the scale of Europe's seas, while also exploring whether Europe has broken some of the trends for long‑established hazardous substances.

OnLine resource

OnLine resource

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Report

Result

Title
Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation

See the referenced specification

Resource lineage

Statement

This assessment is based on data on contaminants, monitored in transitional, coastal and marine waters in the context of the WFD and the MSFD. For this analysis, Europe's seas were divided into grid cells of 20 × 20 km2 in coastal waters and 100 × 100 km2 in offshore areas. The CHASE+ methodology is a simple five-step procedure applied in every assessment unit. For 'biological effects', a contaminant ratio (CR = Cstatus/Cthreshold) is calculated. The values are then subdivided into five status classes with class boundaries: 0.0-0.5 (NPAhigh), 0.5-1.0 (NPAgood), 1.0-5.0 (PAmoderate), 5.0-10.0 (PApoor) and > 10.0 (PAbad).



Based on the EEA reference grid, two grids have been developed covering the Marine Regions and Sub-regions of Europe. The first grid 100x100 km cell is used in offshore areas (> 20 km from the coastline); the second grid 20x20 km covers the coastal areas (<= 20 km from the coastline). The grid sizes were chosen after an evaluation of data availability versus the need for sufficient detail in the resulting assessment. Each cell in the grids has a unique identification defined from the lower left UTM coordinates. The CHASE+ results are associated to the unique cells in the grids.

More information can be found in the report "Contaminants in Europe's seas" and online material on https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/contaminants-in-europes-seas/.

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Source

Reference System Information

Reference System Information

Code
EPSG:3857

Metadata

Metadata identifier
49eb412e-3002-492c-8323-ab5cac07fc40

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

Point of contact

Type of resource

Resource type
Dataset
Metadata linkage

https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/api/records/49eb412e-3002-492c-8323-ab5cac07fc40

Date info (Creation)
2020-01-09T06:39:50Z
Date info (Revision)
2025-10-09T10:48:55.33416Z

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115/19139

Edition

1.0

 
 
Access to the catalogue

Overviews

Spatial extent

Keywords

EEA Management Plan

2018 1.6.2
EEA topics

Biodiversity Chemicals Pollution Seas and coasts Water
GEMET

aquatic environment biological effect contamination environment environmental quality good chemical status indicator-based assessment marine biology marine biota marine ecosystem ocean sea sea water
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Oceanographic geographical features Sea regions
Spatial scope

European


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Access to the catalogue