Urban and industrial uses

Urban development in coastal areas supports Europe’s population growth and includes activities such as building houses, developing harbours, conducting industrial activities, and providing leisure and tourist facilities. Europe has around 280 coastal cities with populations greater than 50,000 inhabitants, including many capital cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Helsinki, Riga, and Stockholm.

Generally, urban areas are most concentrated within the first kilometre of the coastline, and these areas are subject to the greatest pressures. Population growth is highest in Europe’s coastal areas compared to inland areas, with the greatest increases occurring in Ireland, along the Atlantic rim in France, certain regions of Portugal, and on the Mediterranean coast of Spain and France.

Within this theme the following activities are considered: urban and industrial uses, urban and industrial uses.

Read more on these activities

Urban and industrial uses

Coastal areas are increasingly exposed to intense human activities and related infrastructure constructions along the coasts and adjacent river basins. These areas are characterized by high biodiversity and various features such as estuaries, lagoons, and wetlands that serve as habitats for migratory species dependent on land-sea connectivity. Sea level rise, driven by climate change, has been considerably steeper in Europe than at the global scale between 1993 and 2015. Urban sprawl and rising sea levels are squeezing natural areas in a competition for space. Land-based activities in the hinterland near the coastline have direct impacts on the sea, while land-based urbanisation an industries can indirectly affect the marine environment through discharges into rivers or emissions into the air.

Waste treatment and disposal

Under the EU Urban Waste-Water Treatment Directive, a key measure is the requirement to collect and treat wastewater in all settlements and areas of economic activity with populations larger than 2,000. The aim is to prevent untreated or partially untreated wastewater from being discharged directly into the marine environment. However, these measures are not always implemented successfully. Connection rates to treatment facilities vary across Europe, ranging from 80% in Norway, Sweden, and Finland to 13% in Malta.

The sector faces several challenges, such as insufficient capacity during peak times of the year, inadequate types of treatment, and insufficient control of contaminants and nutrients, which can lead to eutrophication episodes.

Improvements to the directive proposed under the EU Green Deal require the removal of more nutrients and micropollutants from urban wastewater, particularly those from toxic pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The proposal will introduce systematic monitoring of microplastics in the inlets and outlets of urban wastewater treatment plants, as well as in the sludge

Pressures on the marine environment

Both direct and indirect pressures are imposed on the marine environment as a result of urban activities, these include:

Contamination caused by point source pollution is driven primarily by urban wastewater treatment and storm overflow.

Marine litter is created by urban and industrial activities often eventually finding its way into the marine environment i.e. small (< 5 mm) microbeads which are intentionally added to cosmetics, toothpastes, and cleaning products and produced through the life cycle of products such as tyres and textiles.

Changes to hydrographical conditions such as localised sea temperature rise can be caused by industrial outflows.

In the Baltic Sea and Black Sea the input of excessive nutrients leading to pollution from urbanisation and intensive agricultural activities has been a big concern since 1970s. To address this, Europe adopted an integrated strategy to reducing nutrient inputs. Nutrient levels have significantly declined between 1980 and 2021, yet eutrophication remains a significant large-scale problem in the Baltic, Black and Greater North Seas and some coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Although progress has been made to reduce nutrient inputs, specifically nitrogen, more effort is necessary, particularly for phosphorus.

References

Korpinen, S., Klančnik, K., Peterlin, M., Nurmi, M., Laamanen, L., Zupančič, G., Popit, A., Murray, C., Harvey, T., Andersen, J.H.,Zenetos, A., Stein, U., Tunesi, L., Abhold, K., Piet, G., Kallenbach, E., Agnesi, S., Bolman, B., Vaughan, D., Reker, J. & Royo Gelabert,E., 2019, Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe’s seas.
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von Schuckmann, K., Le Traon, P.Y., Alvarez. Fanjul, E., Axell, L., Balmaseda, M., et al. 2016. The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service Ocean State Report, Journal! of Operational Oceanography9:s235–s320.
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EEA, 2006. The changing faces of Europe’s coastal areas. European Environment Agency, EEA Report No 6/2006.
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ECJ, 2018. 'Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber) of 25 July 2018, European Commission v Kingdom of Spain, Case C-205/17, Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Collection and treatment of urban waste water — Directive 91/271/EEC — Articles 3 and 4 — Judgment of the Court declaring a failure to fulfil obligations — Non-compliance — Article 260(2) TFEU — Pecuniary penalties — Penalty payment and lump sum', European Court of Justice (http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?language=en&td=ALL&num=C-205/17#).
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EEA, 2018a, Contaminants in Europe's seas — moving towards a clean, non-toxic marine environment, EEA Report No 25/2018, European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/contaminants-in-europes-seas/).
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Kay, P., Hiscos, R., Moberley, I., Balic, L., McKenna, N., 2018. 'Wastewater treatment plants as a source of microplastics in river catchments', Environmental Science and Pollution Research 25(20), pp. 20264-20267 (DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-2070-7).
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