Coastal and marine ecosystems are subject to a number of human-induced pressures associated with a variety of marine activities. As such it is important to understand the links between human activities and pressures and the evidence behind such links.
In 2013 JNCC compiled an activities-pressures matrix which identified 39 human use activity categories and 34 human pressure types. In 2015 Defra commissioned a project, led by ABPmer, to develop the evidence base for understanding the relationships between these human activities and pressures within the marine environment (Defra-commissioned contract ME5218; Defra, 2015).
A database was created (PAD 2015; v1.1) to record the outputs of the literature review, including the collated evidence for links between the human activities and sub-activities and the relevant pressures.
Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.5 is the most recent update, with updates detailed below:
Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.3 (2018) was a revised version of the PAD (2015; v1.1) developed by JNCC using the outputs of the Defra-commissioned contract ME5218 (Defra 2015). (NB v1.2 was withdrawn owing to errors in some activity descriptions and three reference codes)
Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.4 (2021) updates PAD v1.3 (2018) by adding a new activity of 'Cables: Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD)' with associated pressures links and evidence, updated cables activities evidence, and additional grazing activity pressures links.
Marine Pressures-Activities Database (PAD) v1.5 updates 'Light aircraft' activity to 'Light aircraft and drones' to include drones evidence and an updated activity description. In addition for activities-pressure relationships provided by Natural England evidence the RiskFactorDesc field has been corrected to correspond to Natural England's where incorrect linkages had resulted in erroneous information in previous PAD versions.
JNCC redeveloped the PAD in 2018 firstly to re-format and update it to align with Natural England's advice on operations and Marine Scotland/Scottish Natural Heritage's FeAST tools to the extent possible, while still maintaining much of the evidence base collated under project ME5218, and secondly to include additional activities relevant to the offshore that were not included in the 2015 version or the existing tools.
While the key driver for the PAD (2018) update and subsequent updates is to support the advice on operations for UK offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), it will also be used for other areas of work including non-MPA projects such as the development of biodiversity indicators for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the UK Marine Strategy.
The overall aim is to provide a UK-level product that can be used for inshore and offshore waters, within or outwith of MPAs.
The PAD can be accessed as an Access database from JNCC's website at https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/marine-activities-and-pressures-evidence/ in addition to data.gov.uk. Additional resources for download are the Marine PAD Reference list and Excel versions of the Marine Pressures-Activities relationships and Marine PAD v1.5 data tables.
For more information about the PAD see the associated methods report:
UK Marine Pressures-Activities Database "PAD": Methods Report
Robson, L.M., Fincham, J., Peckett, F.J., Frost, N., Jackson, C., Carter, A.J. & Matear, L. (2018)
https://hub.jncc.gov.uk/assets/16506231-f499-408f-bdc8-ea9a6dfbf8b5