1 VALUATION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT IN THE BELGIAN PART OF THE NORTH SEA

Managing systems in a sustainable way has become one of the key considerations in environmental policy over the last decade. Implementing sustainable management of the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) is one of those challenges. It becomes clear however that a sustainable management of the BPNS faces a number of uncertainties, environmental complexity and an intense interaction between users and their ecological impacts. Still, policy advisors, decision makers and users demand advice on how to manage the system in order to safeguard it from deterioration in the future. The management of the system and more specifically the valuation of impacts on the North Sea calls for a multidisciplinary approach as social, economical and ecological interests are at stake. Belgium has a very long and productive history in marine research. Up to 2006, the Federal Government of Belgium funded marine research through several scientific programmes. A diversity of impact studies have been realised within this framework. Besides the governmental programmes, the private sector was another important financial source for impact studies of activities in the BPNS. With respect to the valuation of socio-economic impacts, Ecolas has carried out several environmental impact assessments (EIA) (e.g. off-shore wind energy, sand-and gravel extraction). Together with th