An issue-oriented framework for Marine Spatial Planning—A case study of Koh Lan, Thailand

Abstract

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is adopted as an effective marine resource management tool worldwide to balance the growing development needs and marine conservation. However, the launch of MSP in some countries is still in its infancy due to lack of capacity to compile MSP, such as insufficient financial support, ineffective marine governance system and limited data. To implement MSP within the limitation of capacity, an effective solution would be to target at reconciling the principal contradiction between exploitation and conservation. An issue-oriented framework of MSP for spatial planning was proposed to deal with the constraint and applied it successfully in Koh Lan, Thailand. The framework consists of four layers, namely the layer of issues, the layer of survey and data collection, the layer of analysis, and the layer of policy making. By identifying main conflicts and problems on the island, four thematic analyses were conducted: topographic factor assessment land-based sewage outlet analysis, hydrodynamic characteristics and sewage discharge, habitat quality of the island and its surrounding waters and the island tourism environment based on tourists’ perception, and finally form the MSP plan based on the analyses and stakeholder participation. Lessons learned were highlighted that: (1) Data-driven MSP is fundamental to improve scientificity; (2) Issue-oriented MSP is an effective way of regional marine management and (3) Government impetus and coordination between government and stakeholders is an important guarantee to promote the implementation of MSP. The issue-oriented framework for MSP provides a solution to the problem of slow MSP progress due to inadequate capacity.