Application of environmental risk assessment in the sustainability of marine protected areas (Case study: Nayband Marine National Park)

Establishing Marine protected areas (MPAs) is one of the most important approaches in biodiversity protection and fishery management. Coastal marine environments are facing with numerous threatening factors. Therefore having a comprehensive assessment of multiple risks faced with socio-economic dimensions of marine protected areas is crucial and this should be integrated in ecological research for management of these areas. Environmental risk assessment is the process of examining stressors factors and exposure to these factors. Chemical and non-chemical stress factors should be taken into consideration in a comprehensive risk assessment. In addition, socio-economic aspects have been integrated to other factors in risk assessment process of marine protected area.
The purpose of this study is to identify, evaluate and rank stressors of marine protected areas. Hence, Nayband marine national park was selected as a case study. This area has a high biodiversity and natural beauty that is threatens by high pollution and over capacity exploitation by different organizations. Therefore, the environmental risk assessment and management is essential in this national park. This study was carried out by field visit, interview with Bushehr's department of environment staff and residents around the park.
Pressure-state-response framework has been used for conceptualizing risk analysis and risk management issues in this study. An environmental issue is divided into five parts by DPSIR model. (D) Represents Driving forces which indicate the social, economic, human and climatic conditions, these forces produce biological, chemical and physical pressures (P) Pressures are tensions that produces by human on environment. (S) State shows the condition of the environment. (I) Impact indicates environmental degradation like loss value of fishery. (R) Responses are measures by decision-makers to respond to environmental issues.
In this study, we used integrated framework from integration of multilayer DPSIR model and current approach of ecological risk assessment. This has been archived in four major steps a) identifying potential threats,b) data collection,c) data classification and d) ranking risks. In the first step, potential threats such as maritime transportation, fishing and land-based marine pollution was investigated. In the second step, environmental and socio-economic factors that are associated with potential threats were identified. In The third step, we established a multi-layered framework to explain causal relationships between ecological interactions and socio-economic development. The data is classified into five categories in the DPSIR ring based on causal relationship. In the fourth step, the identification and ranking criteria, taking into account the risk of environmental threats and their consequences. Ranking for each criterion was conducted by a team of experts based on the principle of quality of each index and weight of evidence. Each indicator was allocated a qualitative score of very low (VL), low (l), medium (M), high (H) and very high (VH) based on the “Seven Rapid Ranking Criteria” for MPA management. The risk quotient (RQ) was applied as the quantitative ERA approach to determine if measured levels of chemicals in the target waters and sediments were likely to cause harms to local MPAs. This coefficient is calculated by comparing measured environmental concentrations (MECs) with predicted no effects concentrations (PNECs) to obtain the RQs (RQ = MEC / PNEC). If RQ