This raster dataset represents physical disturbance to the seabed in the European seas. Several human activities disturb the seabed either directly or indirectly. Alteration of benthic living conditions as a result of increased sedimentation or attenuation of light penetration, abrasion of the seabed and exploitation of benthic biota, temporarily disturb the benthic habitat quality. The dataset is an aggregation of several different human activities that cause physical disturbance to the seabed: aquaculture, demersal fishing, dredging and dumping of dredged material, oil and gas rigs, offshore installations, ports, sand and gravel extraction, shellfish mariculture, shipping in shallow waters and windfarms. The resulting dataset is a raster (10km grid cell) derived from EMODnet, MED-IAMER, JRC-STECF, OSPAR, HELCOM and 4C Offshore datasets, and with reference temporal coverage from 2012 to 2017. This dataset has been prepared for the calculation of the combined effect index, produced for the ETC/ICM Report 4/2019 "Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe's seas" available on: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/etc-icm-report-4-2019-multiple-pressures-and-their-combined-effects-in-europes-seas-1.

This raster dataset represents the physical loss of the seabed in the European seas. Physical habitat loss is an extreme pressure on the marine ecosystem which was defined to include all impacts on the seabed which take more than 12 years to recover, a time span influencing even long living marine mammals and seabirds. Habitat is lost if its substrate, morphology or topography is permanently altered. The dataset is an aggregation of several different human activities that cause physical loss in the seabed: dredging and dumping of dredged material, oil and gas rigs, offshore installations, ports, sand and gravel extraction and windfarms. The resulting dataset is a raster (10km grid cell) derived from EMODnet, MED-IAMER and 4C Offshore datasets and with temporal reference from 2012 to 2017. Higher values mean more loss causing activity in the area. Due to its resolution, loss causing activity in a cell does not usually mean that all the seabed habitat in the area is lost. This dataset has been prepared for the calculation of the combined effect index, produced for the ETC/ICM Report 4/2019 "Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe's seas" available on: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/etc-icm-report-4-2019-multiple-pressures-and-their-combined-effects-in-europes-seas-1.