The digital turn of marine planning: a global analysis of ocean geoportals

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent research highlighted the use and role played by digital technologies supporting marine spatial planning (MSP), especially geoportals. This research seldom considers to study an overview of the role of digital technologies and examines the digitalization of marine governance in planning. Employing a critical cartography framework and assemblage theory, we elaborate on the use of geoportal and public involvement in the digital turn of MSP. We show how the digital turn in marine planning is taking place at different levels depending on: the functionalities present on geoportals, the political support for MSP implementation, the regions of the world, and the level of plan development. According to the three dimensions of digital (marine) governance (Kloppenburg et al., 2022), we reveal that the role of geoportal in MSP is a part of the first dimension by seeing and knowing, sometimes the second dimension by self-engagement and in the most advanced forms of geoportal part of the third dimension by leading actions and interventions. In general, we find that the geoportal is more of a facade than a tool for doing MSP. The digital turn in marine planning is real but does not yet allow the public to be a real stakeholder in the process.