State of the Solent: Edition 2

The second edition of the State of the Solent (2004) can be ordered from the Solent Forum at the price of £20 per copy. ISBN: 1859757359. Work will begin on collecting the data for Edition 3 in 2008, with a publication date in 2010.

The aim of the first edition of the State of the Solent report was to present a snapshot of the Solent at the start of the new millennium, by reviewing and quantifying the multiple uses of this important coastal zone. The report also aimed to stimulate debate on the development of coastal indicators that could be used to determine the long term trends in the Solent's environmental, social and economic systems.

The report was prepared making the maximum use of graphics, tables and maps to make it as user friendly as possible. The use of text was kept to a minimum and the data has not been interpreted, however, all the datasets are fully sourced and the onus is on the reader to contact the providers of the information to discuss its meaning. Where possible data has been gathered over a ten year period to begin the process of identifying trends.

The Second edition of the report updates the information which was collated for edition 1 but also contains a number of indicators which were selected to measure the 'health' of the Solent. Where possible the selected indicators have been adapted from international, national and regional indicators of sustainable development e.g. the indicator set developed by the EU Working Group on Indicators and Data for Measuring the Sustainable Development of the Coastal Zone and the UK government's 'Quality of Life' counts and biodiversity indicators. They have also been selected with reference to frameworks developed by a number of international and European Union initiatives i.e. the Sustainable Development Reference System (SDRS) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Pressure/State/Response framework. The indicators were selected to represent all the different aspects of the Solent. Some indicator data, mostly social and economic, is not currently available. Further work is being carried out in these areas through the Solent Forum Research Group.

The Indicator Report is now available as a working document (pdf file). The indicators themselves are available on our Indicator Portal.