70064384-f3b7-49ad-b137-bdf31af82158 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 Copenhagen K 1050 Denmark sdi@eea.europa.eu pointOfContact 2025-10-09T10:56:55.55536Z ISO 19115/19139 1.0 EPSG:4258 BEAT+ Integrated classification of biodiversity condition in Europe’s seas, May 2020 2019-05-08 creation 2020-05-27 publication 01.00 eea_v_4258_20_km_beat_p_2011-2016_v01_r00 DAT-235-en The BEAT+ tool builds on the EEA assessment tools developed and applied in the context of assessing the degree of contamination (CHASE+), eutrophication (HEAT+) and biodiversity (BEAT+) in Europe's seas. BEAT+ makes use of the same data sets and threshold values used in these assessments but recombines these in a new framework that addresses 'biodiversity condition'. BEAT+ has been designed to provide an assessment of the spatial variability of a range of biodiversity components by combining existing biodiversity indicators. The tool integrates data from normalised indicators to identify worst case status measures for different biodiversity components. The results are then linked to a standard gridE based Spatial Assessment Unit (SAU) which is used both for biodiversity and for pressures assessments (Andersen et al., 2014). These grid-based SAUs not only allow alignment of indicators for biodiversity and for pressures but provide a means for combining large assessment areas (e.g. for wide‐ranging species) with point data collected from biological surveys e.g. WFD monitoring. BEAT+ tool works by calculating a Biological Quality Ratio (BQR) which is an aggregated score of indicator outcomes within a grid square. To allow objective comparison, the indicator outcomes are normalised to a scale of 0 to 1, with five status classes at equal intervals on that scale (from Bad starting at 0, Poor at 0.2, Medium at 0.4, Good at 0.6 and High at 0.8). By this means, indicators based on different biological criteria can be aggregated in a consistent way. This metadata refers to dataset providing the results of classification of biodiversity status using the BEAT+ tool. The status is evaluated in five classes, where High and Good are recognised as ‘non-problem areas’ and Moderate, Poor and Bad are recognised as ‘problem areas’. The dataset covers: - BQR Assessment of all marine mammals combined (mainly focused on coastal and relatively stable inshore populations of seals, dolphins and porpoises) - BQR Assessment of seabirds and wading birds - BQR Assessment of commercial fish (as these have agreed targets defined on biomass and fishing mortality) - BQR Assessment of pelagic habitats - BQR Assessment of benthic habitats - BQR Assessment of worst-performing biodiversity groups - An overall synthesis of the Biological Quality Ratios (BQR) values (showing which are the worst -lowest- BQR values in each assessment grid cell. The ‘worst’ value is used here to identify the biological group most at risk, rather than averaging over all groups to avoid over-­emphasis on groups with more intensive monitoring). As reference, please consult the ETC/ICM Report 3/2019: Biodiversity in Europe's seas: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/products/biodiversity-in-europes-seas. The indicator BEAT+ Integrated Assessment Worst Case BQR has been used in the EEA report 17/2019 "Marine Messages II": https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/marine-messages-2. European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 Copenhagen K 1050 Denmark sdi@eea.europa.eu http://www.eea.europa.eu WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link European Environment Agency public website pointOfContact European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 Copenhagen K 1050 Denmark sdi@eea.europa.eu custodian https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/public/catalogue-graphic-overview/70064384-f3b7-49ad-b137-bdf31af82158.png Oceanographic geographical features Sea regions GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-06-01 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.external.theme.httpinspireeceuropaeutheme-theme coastal water marine pollution water marine monitoring marine environment sea marine ecosystem sea water deep sea GEMET 2021-11-30 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.external.theme.gemet Norwegian Sea North Sea Mediterranean Sea, Eastern Basin Bay of Biscay English Channel Baltic Sea Barents Sea Celtic Sea Adriatic Sea Black Sea Ionian Sea Kattegat Mediterranean Sea, Western Basin Tyrrhenian Sea North Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean Sea Aegean Sea Continents, countries, sea regions of the world. 2015-07-17 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.external.place.regions European Spatial scope 2019-05-22 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.external.theme.httpinspireeceuropaeumetadatacodelistSpatialScope-SpatialScope Water EEA topics 2020-09-24 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.external.theme.eea-topics 2019 1.6.2 EEA Management Plan 2021-08-25 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.local.theme.eea-mp /Métropole /Métropole/Manche mer du Nord /Métropole/Mers Celtiques /Métropole/Golfe de Gascogne /Métropole/Méditerranée occidentale Sous-regions marines geonetwork.thesaurus.local.place.dcsmm.area /Etat du Milieu/Espèces Thématiques - SIMM geonetwork.thesaurus.local.theme.simm.thematiques /Etat du Milieu/Habitats Thématiques - SIMM geonetwork.thesaurus.local.theme.simm.thematiques /Données dérivées/Indicateurs Type de jeux de donnée - ODATIS geonetwork.thesaurus.local.theme.type_jeux_donnee /Données dérivées/Produits composites Type de jeux de donnée - ODATIS geonetwork.thesaurus.local.theme.type_jeux_donnee no limitations to public access License CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA). vector 20 100 environment -31.415 40.437 33.0553 84.6016 2011-01-01 2016-12-31 SHP https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/webdav/datastore/public/eea_v_4258_20_km_beat_p_2011-2016_v01_r00/ EEA:FOLDERPATH https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/data/70064384-f3b7-49ad-b137-bdf31af82158 WWW:URL Direct download https://water.discomap.eea.europa.eu/arcgis/services/Marine/BEAT_assessment/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS OGC:WMS https://water.discomap.eea.europa.eu/arcgis/rest/services/Marine/BEAT_assessment/MapServer ESRI:REST Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08 publication See the referenced specification The BEAT+ tool itself is anchored in earlier versions of the tool developed and tested by Helcom (2010a) and the EU‑funded Devotes project (Uusitalo et al., 2016; Nygård et al., 2018). The indicators used for assessing biodiversity conditions across Europe' seas range from planktonic organisms over benthic communities to fish, seabirds, reptiles and marine mammals — and each indicator is represented by two numerical values, a figure representing biodiversity and a figure representing agreed target values (e.g. from Helcom, the OSPAR Commission, maximum sustainable yield (MSY). As reference, please consult the ETC/ICM Report 3/2019: Biodiversity in Europe's seas: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/products/biodiversity-in-europes-seas. The indicator BEAT+ Integrated Assessment Worst Case BQR has been used in the EEA report 17/2019 "Marine Messages II": https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/marine-messages-2.