Background and Aim
Aim
The TIDE approach linked ecosystem services with economic values by coupling the physical needs for economical development with quantified ecosystem resilience needs. TIDE also derived and implemented new solution-oriented initiatives. Thus TIDE not only improved the effectiveness of European, national and regional policy and provided instruments for regional development, but made an essential contribution towards a more sustainable and effective use of investment into North Sea estuaries.
Background
TIDE focused on macro tidal estuaries used as shipping channels leading to large harbours further inland.
Increasing in the future is tidal action and sediment transportation that is very high and will steadily increase as the ecosystem services of intertidal and shallow estuarine habitats are threatened. At the same time decision-makers at these estuaries are faced with an increasingly challenging legal and global economic framework.
Clear objectives and tools were needed to ensure the proper implementation of the EU directives, such as the BHD and WFD. By quantifying resilience as a concept within the TIDE project, it was possible for the first time to synchronise the initiatives of estuaries which featured the same problems.
