Project part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund)

The Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme


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Deployment of Mudbugs

Impact on ecosystem services

Targeted Ecosystem services
This section will need to be produced at a later date, once any ecosystem services benefits from the deployment of the Mudbug are determined.

Table 1: Targeted ecosystem services
Measure
Food: animals  
Water for industrial use  
Water for navigation  
Climate regulation: carbon sequestration  
Regulation extreme events or disturbance: flood water storage  
Regulation extreme events or disturbance: water current reduction  
Regulation extreme events or disturbance: Wave reduction  
Water quantity regulation: drainage of river water  
Water quantity regulation: dissipation of tidal and river energy  
Water quantity regulation: landscape maintenance  
Water quantity regulation: transportation  
Water quality regulation: transport of pollutants and excess nutrients  
Water quality regulation: reduction of excess loads coming from the catchment  
Erosion and sedimentation regulation by water bodies x
Erosion and sedimentation regulation by biological mediation  
"Biodiversity"  
Aesthetic information  
Opportunities for recreation & tourism  
Inspiration for culture, art and design  
Information for cognitive development  

Involved habitats
It is not likely that the deployment of the Mudbug will result in the creation of any marsh habitat, intertidal habitat, subtidal habitat or adjacent land, as given the potential reduced volume of dredged material, it may not be necessary to dredge and relocate the arisings within the estuary to create any additional habitat.

Table 2: Ecosystem services analysis for Hydromotion Mudbugs: Indication of habitat surface and quality change, i.e. situation before versus after measure implementation
MEASURE before After
    surface (%) Quality (1-5) surface (%) quality (1-5)
Marsh habitat above mean high water, floods at
spring tide
0 0 0 0
Intertidal steep habitat floods every tide, mainly steep
zones at marsh edges
0 0 0 0
Intertidal flat habitat floods every tide, flat zones 0 0 0 0
Subtidal shallow habitat never surfaces, less deep than 2m 0 0 0 0
Subtidal moderately deep habitat never surfaces, 2m-5m 0 0 0 0
Subtidal deep habitat never surfaces, deeper than 5m 0 0 0 0
ADJACENT LAND NON FLOODED LAND 0 0 0 0

Quality
1 = very high quality
2 = high quality
3 = medium quality
4 = low quality
5 = very low quality

The measure Hydromotion Mudbug in the polyhaline zone of the Humber estuary was about determining the density of ‘fluid’ mud to determine the depth of the navigable channel, improving the habitat quality of the subtidal deep habitat.



From the ES assessment it is concluded that this measure generates overall a slightly positive expected impact for many ES, mainly for:
  • “biodiversity”
  • Cultural services
  • Some regulating services: Erosion and sedimentation regulation (by water bodies); Water quality regulation: transport of pollutants and excess nutrients
The expected impact for the different beneficiary groups is slightly positive for indirect and future use and for local and region use.


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Report: Management measures analysis and comparison