“A Holistic One Health Assessment Framework for Coastal Areas” by Alexandra Ioannou, Evmorfia Bataka, Nikolaos Kokosis, Dimitris Kofinas, Charalambos Billinis and Chrysi Laspidou (University of Thessaly) proposes a new way to assess the health of coastal zones.
Coastal areas are under simultaneous pressure from pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change and zoonotic risks, with direct consequences for local communities and economies. The authors introduce a Coastal One Health (C-OH) framework that explicitly links human health, animal health and environmental ecosystem quality in a single structure.
Building on and extending the well-known DPSIR (Drivers–Pressures–State–Impact–Response) model, the framework proposes three composite indicators:
- Human Health Outcome Index (HHOI) – capturing links between environmental conditions, bathing water quality, seafood safety, disease outcomes and socio-economic well-being.
- Aquatic Animal Health Risk Index (AAHRI) – reflecting disease risks, antimicrobial resistance and health status in farmed and wild aquatic animals.
- Environmental Ecosystem Quality Index (EEQI) – integrating biodiversity, habitat condition, pollution load, water quality and climate-related stressors.
These indicators are designed to be policy-ready and interoperable with existing monitoring and reporting under key EU directives (Water Framework Directive, Bathing Water Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and the UN SDGs (particularly SDG 3, 6 and 14). By combining environmental, health and socio-economic data, the C-OH framework aims to:
- Support vulnerability assessment of coastal municipalities
- Help compare and prioritise risks and interventions at local scale
- Enable early warning and tracking of hazards such as harmful algal blooms, Vibrio outbreaks and AMR
- Strengthen integrated, cross-sector coastal governance
This publication lays the conceptual and methodological foundations of the framework and provides the full indicator set. The next step will be to build and test the composite indices in practice, starting with a pilot application in Pagasitikos Gulf (Greece), with potential transfer to other coastal and even urban environments.
📘 Read the full publication here: A Holistic One Health Assessment Framework for Coastal Areas