NESTORE

With the fast increase of the offshore renewable energy (ORE) sector development in France, a growing concern is emerging on the potential cumulative impacts, at different spatial levels, of the ORE farms and other human activities on the functioning of marine ecosystems. In various legal documents, this concern compels ORE developers to include the cumulative impact assessment in their Environmental Impacts Assessment (EIA). In this context, it is crucial to speed-up the development of adapted operational tools to optimally conduct this foreseen legal obligation. In this process, a French national experts group has established an operational roadmap for conducting an assessment of cumulative impacts in ORE development context. Their recommendations highlight the need to adapt a modelling approach to integrate the cumulative impacts of ORE and other human activities on marine ecosystems functioning.