Integrating Conceptual Modelling and Ontologies in Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Design

This paper explains the extent to which the importance of Marine Cadastre (MC) and Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) is recognized in the context of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), Blue Economy (BE) and Blue Growth (BG), in the scientific community. A bibliometric assessment was performed using bibliometrics methodology. The research shows that MC and MSDI are underrepresented in the scientific literature. To the authors’ knowledge, theoretical, educational and capacity-building foundations are not developed enough in this domain. There are many practical issues in the marine and maritime domain that needed to be solved by the technical and engineering professions. They can be solved based on theoretical, scientific research and practical experience in different countries. The analysis of scientific papers was performed, together with different countries’ contributions, in the scientific database ISI Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Another issue analysed is countries’ collaboration. The results show that there is almost no collaboration in the MC domain and some, but insufficient, in the MSDI domain. Based on analysing the recognition of the MC domain, as a basic layer of MSDI, the results are more satisfying than in other parts of the research.

This paper introduces smart marine ecosystem-based planning (SMEP), a marine spatial planning (MSP) strategy for more participatory and responsive marine governance by leveraging “smart” digital services. SMEP denotes an iterative MSP process with planning cycles that incorporate continuous data gathering of spatial–temporal natural phenomena and human activities in coastal and marine areas, with ongoing data mining to locate key patterns and trends, to strive for periodic refinement of the MSP output. SMEP aims to adopt an ecosystem-based approach, taking into account both living and nonliving aspects of the marine environment, and making use of all available spatial data at various resolutions. In pursuit of SMEP implementation, the paper examines the current state of the MSP process in Greece and relates its long-term success with the establishment of a marine spatial data infrastructure (MSDI), employing contemporary nautical cartography standards along with hydrospatial data services.

This paper shows the results of studies focusing on interaction between ocean governance and ocean-related data & information. This will include, first of all, the international comparison of the integrated marine information system (clearing house, and Marine Cadastre or Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure: MSDI), marine policy, and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), as an effective decision making tool or process for science-based marine management and governance. This paper also shows the results of study on the needs of ocean survey conducted for emerging countries mainly in the Asia and Pacific region which are trying to expand ocean-related activities and demanding the ocean management or "governance" capabilities. The results showed the great needs for conducting ocean survey as the first step to understand their oceans, as well as the needs for the database management (e.g. integrated marine information system), application (including the interest in Marine Spatial Planning: MSP), and capacity building in marine-related government agencies/research institutions. Upon all these analysis on the dynamics of how the scientific tools (i.e. ocean survey and integrated information system) are linked to the decision making mechanism (i.e. MSP) which could ultimately assist the possible legislation necessary for the ocean administration, this paper illustrates the possible ways to strengthen the "ocean governance" capabilities to manage the sustainable exploitation, development, and conservation of our oceans by the ocean-related data & information management, especially focusing on Japan and Asia and Pacific region.

With the need to enhance informed decision-making and understanding of the marine environment, a national Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI), the Mauritius Ocean Observatory E-Platform (E-platform), was developed to support the Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) initiative of the Republic of Mauritius. The aim of the E-platform is to centralize geospatial data pertaining to the maritime zones of the Republic of Mauritius to facilitate data discovery and sharing among government agencies, parastatal bodies, scientists, and public users and identify potential gaps in information. The E-platform is built using GeoNode, an open-source platform, which integrates currently used standards for MSDI. This paper presents an overview of the different activities undertaken to implement the E-platform within the MSP framework. In particular, the E-platform is discussed with reference to the four pillars of an MSDI: governance, technology, data, and capacity building.

How sustainable is sustainable marine spatial planning? Part I—Linking the concepts

The three countries of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME), namely Angola, Namibia and South Africa, have committed to implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) including an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) in the region, to put in practice the principles of sustainable development in ocean-related matters. There is also recognition of the need for marine spatial planning (MSP) as a process for informing EBM with regard to the allocation and siting of ocean uses so that ecosystem health is ensured and trade-offs between ecosystem services are appropriately dealt with. Marine spatial planning is both an integrated and an area-based process, and this paper produces a spatial characterisation of the BCLME for achieving a common basis for MSP in the region, focusing on the oceanography, biology and fisheries. Recognising spatial variation in physical driving forces, primary and secondary production, trophic structures and species richness, four different subsystems are characterised: (1) north of the Angola–Benguela Front, (2) from the Angola–Benguela Front to Lüderitz, (3) from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas, and (4) from Cape Agulhas to Port Alfred on the south-east coast of South Africa. Research and monitoring requirements of relevance for MSP and EBM in the region are identified, focusing on understanding variability and change, including with regard to the boundary areas identified for the system. To this end, 14 cross-shelf monitoring transects are proposed (including seven that are already being monitored) to estimate fluxes of biota, energy and materials within and between the subsystems. The usefulness of models for understanding ecosystem variability and changes is recognised and the need for fine-scale resolution of both sampling and modelling for adequate MSP as input to EBM for the often-conflicting interests of conserving biodiversity, and managing fisheries, recreation, offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation, offshore mining and shipping routes, is emphasised.

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) related to marine spatial data is known as marine SDI (MSDI). In this paper, we determine data themes under the MSDI in the order of usefulness and efficiency. The purpose is to streamline and support the prioritisation of data to be further implemented in the MSDI. This is conceptualised using the logic of decision support systems and a multi-criteria analysis approach that integrates components such as data, stakeholders, and users through multi-criteria methods for priority ranking. This research proposes an MSDI development concept and is validated using the Croatian MSDI case.

Responding to calls for a more theoretically driven, post-positivist and radical marine spatial planning research that approaches the policy as a political project, this paper develops a post-structuralist discourse theory approach to critical marine spatial planning. Elaborating radical contingency as an ontological condition of social life, which points to the ineradicability of power and conflict in marine spatial planning social relations, the paper problematizes marine spatial planning as constituting politics, or key practices that attempt to organize human coexistence and thus, conceal this radical contingency. These practices (e.g. ecosystem-based management, participation, planning regulation and the organization of socio-natural spaces), whose outcomes are far from adaptive, consensual or neutral are discussed as sites of ‘politics’ that effectively marginalize particular groups of people and ‘herd’ their participation and ways of knowing toward achieving limited policy outcomes. Drawing on the EU Marine Spatial Planning Directive, the paper further teases out how specific narratives and rhetorical signifiers around ‘integrating’ and ‘balancing’ potentially irreconcilable sustainable development objectives may interpellate particular stakeholders in ways that render them ideologically complicitous in sustaining, rather than challenging, neoliberal logics of managerialism and economic maximization of marine resources. But in tune with the ontological condition of the social as radically contingent, the paper discusses how and why participatory spaces may constitute a potential space of contestation for marginalized voices and thus, reveal the political moment of marine spatial planning. Calls are made for future empirically grounded research that explores how these marine spatial planning practices are lived in both planning and extra-planning settings, and with what implications for marine protection and extant social relations of power in different marine spatial planning contexts.

Data requirements and tools to operationalize marine spatial planning in the United States

This is the first publication by Geneletti and Abdullah which brings together a concise selection of case studies of spatial decision support tools and applications. The array of tools and techniques in this edited collection of case studies includes a number of spatial planning and decision support systems that have been applied in a range of contexts from Europe, South East Asia and Latin America. The book begins with an introduction of spatial decision support tools for urban and environmental planning by Klosterman. This sets the scene highlighting the important role information technology and spatial models play in supporting planning-based activities. The introduction provides a good segue into the first chapter by Sharifi and Zucca who introduce the reader to the concept of integrated planning and decision support systems where a comprehensive conceptual framework for planning and decision making is illustrated. The authors then describe the use of the Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) module within the Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS) to undertake a selection of suitable sites and designs for a new park in northern Italy. The second chapter by Sante-Riveria, Crecent-Maseda, Boullon-Magan and Miranda-Barross describes the use of the RUral Land-use Exploration System (RULES) for the purpose of comprehensive rural urban land use planning in northwest Spain. A modular approach is taken by firstly undertaking land evaluation through a number of land suitability analysis techniques. Next, an area optimisation module has been run to solve a GIS-based linear programming model. Finally, the spatial allocation module utilises the RULES spatial decision support system (SDSS) Appl. Spatial Analysis DOI 10.1007/s12061-009-9029-5

Two decades of progress in Marine Spatial Planning

Identifying ecological hotspots in the United States and Norway: Turning ecosystem-based management into practice?

Using ecological modelling in marine spatial planning to enhance ecosystem-based management

Ecosystem-based management, spatial orientation, a multilevel policy framework and integration have all been identified as essential components of effective marine spatial planning (MSP). Integration has been noted by researchers and through international forums as being essential to achieve effective oceans governance. However, integrated policy approaches are the most difficult policies to design, develop and implement. They require a holistic rather than sectoral focus; horizontal and vertical jurisdictional support and coordination; and the involvement of a diverse group of stakeholders including industry, NGOs, and local communities. Integrated policies are prone to failure but if “integrative capacity” exists, integration in MSP can contribute to its success. This paper examines the role of integration within MSP and suggests a framework for determining effective integration and “integrative capacity”. It refers to different marine spatial planning examples which demonstrate that integrative capacity can contribute to the success, failure and longevity of MSP and ecosystem-based management.

Spatial MCDA in marine planning: Experiences from the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas