Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 14 on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine recources for sustainable development, which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal'.

SDG 14 aims to achieve conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources, that also requires among other things preventing and reducing marine pollution and the impacts of ocean acidification.

The indicator can be considered as similar to the global SDG indicator 14.1.1: (a) "Index of coastal eutrophication".

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires Member States to report on eutrophication for their regional seas every 6 years.

The indicator shows the share of eutrophic marine waters in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). An area is classified as eutrophic if for more than 25 % of the observation days of a given year the chlorophyll concentrations as a proxy for eutrophication are above the 90th percentile of the 1998–2017 reference base line.

Eutrophication is the process by which an excess of nutrients – mainly phosphorus and nitrogen – leads to increased growth of plant material, particularly algal blooms, in an aquatic body resulting in a decrease in water quality. This can, in turn, cause death by hypoxia of aquatic organisms. Anthropogenic activities, such as farming, agriculture, aquaculture, industry and sewage, are the main source of nutrient input in problem areas.

The Copernicus Marine Service has calculated the indicator from satellite imagery.

km² and % of Exclusive Economic Zone

Calendar year

Indicator from non-ESS source. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in section “Annexes”).

Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS)

Data source: Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS)

Data provider: CMEMS (through Mercator Ocean International)

Every year

Indicator is updated annually in February.

T+1 year

New data points are disseminated within one years after the reference year.

> 75% EU MS and EU aggregate

Data are presented for all EU Member States but do not apply to Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia (landlocked countries).

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States (as far as applicable).

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 1998.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is > 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

see table  sdg_14_60

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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