GES under the criterion D6C3 is determined via the spatial area of physical disturbance to the habitat types. GES is achieved if the extent of the physically disturbed habitat is ≤ 10% of the total area of the habitat type.

The proportion (%) of the area of ​​the main MSRD habitat type lost due to human activities causing physical loss (D6C1) is estimated. Maximum allowed extent of loss per habitat is 2%.

The evaluation uses the existing WFD, HD and MSFD evaluation results (BALEED5C5.1, BALEED5C5.4, BALEED5C7.4, BALEED5C8.1, BALEED5C8.3) according to the distribution of the habitat type. If the assessment areas overlap spatially, a lower assessment is chosen (Krause et al., 2019). According to the assessment methodology, the assessment results of criteria D6C3, D6C4 and D7C2 must be taken into account for the assessment of criterion D6C5. To this end, the extent of destruction and disturbance of a habitat type assessed based on the listed criteria is classified as an area where GES has not been achieved in the D6C5 assessment. GES is considered achieved if 75% of area of habitat has achieved the threshold value