The HELCOM Monitoring Manual is developed to support the implementation of the HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy and to follow-up commitments made under Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) for those Contracting Parties of HELCOM that are also EU Member States. Full background information and general introduction to the HELCOM Monitoring Manual can be found in the introduction.
The Monitoring Manual provides information on existing monitoring programmes and their links to indicators developed to assess progress towards Good Environmental Status (GES). The information is organized along 11 main monitoring programmes or grouped according to 16 thematic programme topics. 40 sub-programmes provide the most detailed information about the monitoring. The level of regional coordination currently varies between topics while it is the ambition to develop HELCOM coordinated monitoring for all programmes.
By 2016, the Monitoring Manual will integrate existing HELCOM manuals and guidelines while at present they are still available in their current form.
In the presentation of sub-programmes there are reocurring annotations e.g. “Q5c”. These annontations refer to specific questions required for the reporting of monitoring programmes of EU Member States under the MSFD (MSFD reporting package for Article 11).
