Welcome to Black Sea Regional database

The Project titled Environmental monitoring of the Black Sea for nutrients (hereafter referred as Baltic2Black), supported by the European Commission, is implemented by BSC PS under the Grant Agreement No 07.0204/2010/580913/SUB/D2 of DG ENVIRONMENT since January 2011.

The general objective of the project is to promote environment protection in the Black Sea area by improving the environmental monitoring. The secondary objective of the project is to enhance transfer of knowledge and good practices from Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) to the Black Sea Commission (BSC).

Eutrophication/nutrient-enrichment is recognized as one of the major threats to the marine environment of the Black Sea in the BS-SAP 1996 as well as in the revised BS-SAP 2009. In BS-SAP-2009, following Long-term Ecosystem Quality Objectives (EcoQOs) are addressed to these issues: EcoQO 3: Reduce eutrophication and EcoQO 4: Ensure Good Water Quality for Human Health, Recreational Use and Aquatic Biota.

The regional environmental monitoring in the Black Sea is carried out in framework of the Black Sea Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme (BSIMAP), implemented by the Black Sea Commission (BSC) since 2001. BSIMAP is addressed to the main transboundary environmental problems in the Black Sea region: eutrophication, water pollution and water quality, biodiversity change and decline, habitats destruction. BSIMAP provides common format reports to the BSC annually.

The data from the reports are loaded into the Black Sea Information System (BSIS) and used to evaluate changes over time in the coastal and marine environment. Developed in the middle of 2000 the BSIS is functioning in delayed mode and does not possess publicly accessible GIS interface. It shall be gradually updated to meet present requirements.

The Regional Database on Pollution (RDB-P) is one of the components of the Black Sea Information System. It contains data on pollutants in water, sediments and biota collected in countries in process of implementation of the BSIMAP and annually reported to the BSC. The data on nutrients constitute the major part of the database.