Land-sea interactions and maritime spatial planning guidelines in the context of European Union. The case of Greece

Abstract

Coastal zones always attracted a wide range of human activities. Nowadays, the complexity of human activities and the population growth in these areas, demand a more coherent, integrated and targeted spatial planning approaches. Also, we should not overlook the fact that more and more often we become witnesses of climate change effects and natural hazards in coastal areas. For this reason, European Commission adopted on the 12th of March 2013 a draft proposal of a Directive that establishes a framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management. Alongside, in 2014 European Commission adopted the Directive 2014/89/EU for establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning, as the rapidly increasing demand of space for different activities razed some serious concerns about the sustainable future of European space. Maritime Spatial Planning, is a cross-sectoral planning tool that interferes with the social, economic and environmental conditions, contributing, among other things, to the development of marine space and the creation of new productive activities. However, the exploitation of marine resources alongside with the coastal (land-based) activities, requires a deep understanding of the multi-level dimension and the different land-sea interactions. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the way that land-sea interactions and the maritime spatial planning (MSP) guidelines are treated in the modern institutional framework of the European Union, as some concerns have been mentioned, regarding the implementation of the Directive 2014/89/EU in the Member States. The concerns include choices about sectorial or holistic approaches for the implementation of MSP, the combination and the limits between MSP and integrated coastal zone management, and different planning approaches like the ecosystem-based management approach. In connection to these research objectives, the paper finally examines the way that the Directive2014/89/EU is intended to be incorporated into the Greek planning system and the compatibility with the existing land use planning system, that derives from the recent reform of spatial planning legislation (L.4447/2016).