LUSI improved index: a GIS based tool to determine continental pressures on coastal ecosystem

Trabajo final presentado por Giorgio Lupo para el Máster en Teledetección y Sistemas de Información Geográfica de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), realizado bajo la dirección del profesor Miquel Ninyerola Casals de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) y la Dra. Esther Garcés del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC).-- 15 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, supplementary materialThe European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) recommends pressure and impact analyses as a risk assessment method to achieve ecological quality objectives. Here we present the LUSI Improved Index, an approach based on the Geographic Information System (GIS) to assess continental pressures on coastal waters. LUSI Improved is an easy-to-use tool for modelling natural processes that combines spatial and non-spatial information from different data sets and integrates physical and socio-economic information to capture human pressure on coastal systems. This tool allows to establish a true pressure-impact relationships, based on LUSI Improved, as a proxy for pressure, and chlorophyll-a concentration, as a proxy for phytoplanktonic biomass (one of the elements of the WFD Biological Quality Elements) and, thus, the impact of eutrophication. Furthermore, by providing information on the different drives that trigger eutrophication in coastal waters, LUSI Improved meets the need for more knowledge on how to design measures to remedy anthropogenic damage to the environmen