State of Baltic Sea sub-basins:
Data visualisation
Data visualisation
One of the main summarising data visualisations of the ambitious State of the Baltic Sea report, produced by HELCOM – Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission.
The report is intended for researchers and policy-makers, so the visualisation assumes a certain level of background knowledge. Below, I've briefly explained what it is all about.
The State of the Baltic Sea report assessed the situation in the Baltic from two main perspectives:
- the intensity of pressures affecting the sea, such as eutrophication, hazardous substances, and commercial fishing
- the state of various parts of the ecosystem, such as bottom habitats (benthic), open sea habitats (pelagic) and groups of animals like fish, marine mammals, and waterbirds.
For this assessment, the Baltic Sea is divided into 17 parts, known as sub-basins. The aim of the data visualisation is to provide a summary of the state per sub-basin, by showing the state of all the assessed themes.
How to read it
Each of the sub-basins is shown as a flower, of which each petal represents one of the assessed themes. The colour of each petal represents the result of the assessment.
Most of the themes are assessed using a complex system of different measures and calculations. These integrated assessments have a five-category scale of two "good" categories and three "not good" categories. The greener the better, and the redder the less good.
In two cases, the assessments instead rely on one single measure, called an indicator, and shown simply as green for "good" or red for "not good". Commercial fishing stocks are also assessed with this two-class scale.
–
The flower concept gives a quick overview of the situation in each sub-basin, while also letting the reader delve deeper into the the details of the assessment by looking at each petal.
The data visualisation is included in the executive summary of the State of the Baltic Sea report, which is available in its entirety as an online version as well as in print.
FULL Caption FROM the report:
Figure ES2. Summary of the assessment of pressures and status by sub-basins the Baltic Sea. For each sub-basin, each petal refers to a pressure or biodiversity ecosystem component according to its position in the flower shape, as shown in the figure legend. White petals are shown when no assessment is available, or when the assessment is currently incomplete. For marine litter, underwater sound, and seabed loss and disturbance, descriptive information provided in the report. Integrated assessment results are shown in five categories for eutrophication, hazardous substances, benthic habitats, pelagic habitats, open sea fish, and seals. Waterbirds are not assessed at integrated level (see Figure ES4 in the Summary of findings for indicator results). For commercial fishing, the petal colours correspond to the status of the fish stock in the worst status in that sub-basin. Non-indigenous species are assessed at the Baltic Sea scale, and the same indicator result is shown for all sub-basins. An overview of all assessment results by indicators and sub-basins, including results for waterbirds in coastal areas, is shown in Figures ES3-4 in the Summary of findings.
–
Thanks for taking a look! Like what you see? Contact me through Co-op Bionautit or find me on Twitter.
