We would like to invite you to the ICES workshop on „Introducing coupled ecological – economic modelling and risk assessment into management tools“ (WKIMM). The workshop will bring together ecological and economic modellers to review the potential of existing models and to evaluate possibilities of integrating state-of-the-art ecological and economic modelling approaches for (ecosystem-based) fisheries management plan development and evaluation. The workshop will concentrate on methodological approaches regarding integrated economic and ecological modelling and risk assessment in a regional scope. Regarding the terms of reference, the workshop aims on reviewing regional scale model framework examples, to identify necessary data, to identify ways to use these frameworks in management, and to identify ways to evaluate risk assessment scenarios.

The background is that traditionally the emphasis of the work within ICES is the biological assessment of marine resources. Recently ecological models have been developed to incorporate the ecosystem aspect (e.g. within the context of integrated ecosystem assessment; Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the Baltic Sea (WGIAB), Working Group on Holistic Assessments of Regional Marine Ecosystems (WGHAME)). To some extent, also economic models are under development (e.g. Working Group on Mixed Fisheries Advice for the North Sea (WGMIXFISH), Working Group on Fishery Systems (WGFS)), but the economic expertise outside ICES is not fully used yet. Thus, the workshop explicitly wants to invite expertise from outside ICES to fully explore the possibilities on future cooperation with the economic discipline.

It will build upon the experience of several EU projects, e.g. EFIMAS as well as a recent EU-tender reporting on bio-economic modelling, and reflect on work already done within ICES expert groups like SGMIXFISH or WGFS.

The workshop was proposed during the work of the Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the Baltic Sea (WGIAB) and, thus, one case study area will be the Baltic Sea. However, cross-case study comparisons are highly welcome, e.g. North Sea and outside ICES examples.

The official Flyer can be downloaded here.