State of the Solent: Indicators for the 'health' of the Solent
State of the Solent Edition 3, 2010
Work on producing the third edition of the State of the Solent is well underway, the Forum has 48 datasets on file covering a wide range of coastal topics. The data will be published to these pages of the Forum's website on completion.
Introduction
To date the following work has been carried out on the State of the Solent (SOS) reports and subsequent development of a set of coastal sustainability indicators for the Solent.
- In 2001, the first edition of the State of the Solent report was published. The aim of the report was “to provide a snapshot of the Solent at the start of the new millennium, by reviewing and quantifying the multiple uses of the Solent’s coastal zone” (Solent Forum, 2001). The report also aimed to stimulate debate on the development of coastal indicators that could be used to determine long-term trends in the Solent’s environmental, social and economic systems.
- In 2004, a set of coastal sustainability indicators for the Solent was developed and agreed by Solent Forum members. These indicators were nested with the work been done by the ICZM working group on indicators and data and those developed as part of the Sail project. These were published in the second edition of the State of the Solent report in 2005. This report is now out of print.
- In 2007/08, a student placement was tasked with updating the indicator data. An indicator leaflet was produced to publicise the Solent coastal indicator data set to members. This directed members to the Solent Forum website for further information.
- The third edition of the State of the Solent is due to be published in autumn 2010. This will be an online resource with a focus on the indicator data sets rather a paper based report. This will be more cost effective and be easier to keep current.
Indicator Collection Methodology for State of the Solent 3
- The data collection methodology has followed on from that used to gather the data for the previous editions of the SOS reports.
- Data is collected from a number of sources and uses established datasets that are collected on a regular basis e.g. WeBS bird count data, fisheries data collected by CEFAS etc. This reduces the resources needed to maintain the indicator datasets and as most are available on line ensures the data is easy to access.
- For this edition only the data for the actual indicators is being gathered and not the additional information which was included in SOS 1 and 2. This will reduced the number of datasets which are being collected and ensure that the information is easier to keep updated.
- Once the data has been sourced it is then spilt out for the Solent region. This often involved drilling down into the data or adding a number of datasets together.
- Where data is collected on the regional/national/EU scale reference will be made to the trends which are shown at these levels and comparison with that found for the Solent will be made.
- To ensure future data collection can be done with ease. A data collection methodology has been produced. Part of this involved all data source information held in a excel spreadsheet to allow anyone to be able to source the data in the future to ensure the information is kept current.
- The indicators themselves have also been reviewed to ensure they were still current and relevant and helped to measure progress with the associated long term aims from the Forum'Strategic Guidance.
Presentation of the indicators
The indicators will be uploaded onto the Solent Forum website as PDF sheets. Each indicator sheet will include information on:
- Reasons for using the indicator;
- Information on where the data comes from;
- What the indicators shows (the Forum will not give an opinion on if the trend is good or bad it will just be described);
- What the possible implications are for coastal management relating back to the long term aim in the Strategic Guidance. This information will help users to understand the data and its limitations. Indicators are a simplification of situations and act to highlight issues (good and bad). If an issue is highlighted further work would be needed to explore it in more detail.
