Marine biological valuation maps - an example from Belgium

These are maps showing the intrinsic biodiversity value of subzones within a study area. Such maps would need to make best use of available data sets, compiling and summarizing relevant biological and ecological information for a study area, and allocating an overall biological value to different subzones. Subzones are scored relatively to each other using a set of valuation criteria. These maps can be used by policy makers during spatial planning as a kind of “warning systems”. Rather than a general strategy for protecting areas that have some ecological significance, biological valuation is a tool for calling attention to areas which have particularly high ecological or biological significance and to facilitate provision of a greater-than-usual degree of risk aversion in management of activities in such areas.