Conference report: 'Stepping into the Water': A New Domain for Spatial Planning, Sheffield, 21 May 2010

Abstract

A one-day symposium on the theme of marine planning was held at Sheffield Hallam University on 21 May 2010. Although the lead for the symposium was taken by Sheffield Hallam University, it was jointly organised by Sue Kidd (University of Liverpool), Geraint Ellis (Queen's University, Belfast) and Stephen Jay (Sheffield Hallam University). The event was deliberately organised as a small-scale meeting; in all about 30 people were involved via authorship of papers and/or participation on the day. Those attending were mainly academics and researchers from throughout the UK and from Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, but policy-makers, practitioners and stakeholder groups were also represented. The symposium was funded by Sheffield Hallam University as a means of highlighting and supporting this new topic for planning practice and research as an area of interest within its Department of Architecture and Planning. An Invitation for Planning The title of the symposium reflects the relative newness of 'marine planning', an area of practice and research into which spatial planners are now being invited. Also referred to as 'marine' or 'maritime spatial planning', it has rapidly emerged as a new approach to marine governance in response to the growing pressures on the seas, which are leading to increasing environmental damage. The onset of marine planning also reflects the growing territorialisation of the seas following developments in international law of the sea. Its overriding aim is to provide an integrated, strategic framework for human activities and environmental protection at sea, which has until now been lacking. It is anticipated that marine planning will achieve the coordination of activities and interests as diverse as offshore renewables, mineral extraction, fishing, navigation, nature conservation, scientific research, pipelines and cables, tourism and recreation and military training. Some of the conventional instruments of planning will be called into use, especially the preparation of marine plans, which are likely in some cases to cover vast geographical areas. Europe has been a key focus of this area of policy development, especially as some north European nations, encouraged by the European Union, have begun to implement systems of comprehensive marine planning for their waters. So far, Germany and the Netherlands have taken the lead (CEC, 2008; Douvere and Ehler, 2009). They have been closely followed by the UK, which has recently passed legislation (the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009) that brings a statutory planning system for UK waters into force and establishes a new agency (the Marine Management Organisation) with responsibility for this new task (HM Government, 2008). Scotland has introduced parallel legislation and has also set up a body (Marine Scotland) to implement it. The advent of marine planning marks a significant development in both marine governance and the remit of spatial planning itself, as it takes planning into unprecedented new territory, both geographically and conceptually (Peel and Lloyd, 2004). However, most interest has come so far from the coastal and marine management world, such as marine scientists, and from sea user groups, for whom the onset of marine planning has obvious and direct relevance. Arguably, this is reflected in the way in which marine planning is being conceptualised, primarily as a form of scientifically driven resource management (Jay, 2010). The planning community has been slow to recognise its significance, perhaps because of some of the difficulties involved in seeking to carry out planning for the sea. The principal aims of the symposium were therefore to draw people from a planning background more closely into the debate about the formation of marine planning and, importantly, to enable the wealth of spatial planning thought and practice to be brought to bear. Planning is being invited to step into the water, to join those from other disciplines and backgrounds who are already there, in an interdisciplinary engagement about the shape that marine planning is taking. …