Marine Spatial Planning

Marine Spatial Planning is a planning tool that enables integrated, forward-looking and consistent decision-making on the use of the sea. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the United Kingdom have developed a commonly used definition:

“strategic, forward-looking planning for regulating, managing and protecting the marine environment,including through allocation of space, that addresses the multiple, cumulative, and potentially conflicting uses of the sea” (DEFRA, 2004,3)

The main elements of marine spatial planning include an interlinked system of plans, policiesand regulations; the components of environmental management systems (e.g. settingobjectives, initial assessment, implementation, monitoring, audit and review); and some of themany tools that are already used for land use planning. Whatever the building blocks, theessential consideration is that they need to work across sectors and give a geographiccontext in which to make decisions about the use of resources, development, conservationand the management of activities in the marine environment (JMPMU 55, 2007).

ee also

*Land use planning
*Marine Park
*Marine Protected Area
*Zoning

References

ABPmer (2005), Marine Spatial Planning Pilot Literature Review Peterbourough.Online:http://www.abpmer.net/mspp

ABPmer (2006), Marine Spatial Planning Pilot Final Report. Peterbourough.Online:http://www.abpmer.net/mspp

Joint Marine Programme Marine Update 55 (2007): Marine Spatial Planning: A down to earth view of managing activities in the marine environment for the benefit of humans and wildlife

Long R. (2007) .Marine Resource Law. Dublin: Thompson Round Hall

Gubbay S. (2004) .Marine protected areas in the context of marine spatial planning—discussing the links. A report for WWF-UKOnline: http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/MPAs-marinespacialplanning.pdf

Douvere, F and Ehler, C. (2006) The International perspective: Lessons From RecentEuropean Experience With Marine Spatial Planning, Paper presented at the Paperpresented at the Symposium on Management for Spatial and Temporal Complexity inOcean Ecosystems in the 21st Century at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Society forConservation Biology, San Jose, California, 24-28 June 2006