Health and Improvement of Coastal Water Quality 

Objectives

Identify the problems in international water quality management and discuss them in class.

Materials

•	List of fictitious characters
•	Maps (next page) Maps of eutrophication: Political consensus versus remotely sensed observations
•	Optional: newspaper or magazine articles, information from the Internet about harmful algal blooms and a, and as an example, the OSPAR Commission (protecting and conserving the North-East Atlantic and its resources)

Procedure

•	Prepare yourself for a role-playing discussion in class. Take up the role of one of the fictitious characters listed in the two tables below. 
•	Setting 1: First there is an internal meeting of a fictitious Commission protecting and conserving the North-East Atlantic and its resources. This commission has agreed about eutrophication problem areas and potential problem areas and is now internally briefed by Prof. RS about outcomes from a remote sensing project. Discuss the implications of the results of Mr RS.
•	Setting 2: An eco-friendly journalist read the scientific article of Prof. RS, and has organised a round table discussion to discuss the implications of the results.
•	Write a short 1 A4 report about the results from the two discussions and present it.

Fictitious Characters
Setting 1:
Name	Position	
Mr/Mrs Chairperson	Chair of the fictitious Commission	
Mr/Mrs. Holland	Spokesperson of a fictitious Dutch National Water Management Organisation (for example, Rijkswaterstaat)	
Mr/Mrs. Germany	Spokesperson of a fictitious German (or Bundes) Water Management Organisation	
Mr/Mrs. UK	Spokesperson of a fictitious British National Water Management Organisation (for example, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA)	
Prof. RS	University scientist specialised in ocean colour remote sensing	

Setting 2:
Name	Position	
Mr/Mrs. UK	Spokesperson of a fictitious British National Water Management Organisation (for example, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA)	
Prof. RS	University Scientist specialised in ocean colour remote sensing	
Mr./Mrs. Healthy	Spokesperson for a local Centre for Environmental Health	
Mr./Mrs. Goodley	Spokesperson for an environmental Non-Governmental organisation (for example, Greenpeace)	
Mr/Mrs. Ecologically-interested	Journalist	

Maps of ’eutrophication’: Political consensus versus remotely sensed observations

Left: OPSPAR map of eutrophication problem areas and potential problem areas. Right: Chlorophyll-a concentrations from remote sensing. Chlorophyll-a is used as an indicator of eutrophication.