Ocean Planning Research Articles

Addressing ocean planning challenges in a highly crowded sea space: a case study for the regional sea of Catalonia (Western Mediterranean).

This study performs an exploratory analysis of current-future sustainability challenges for ocean planning for the regional seas of Catalonia located in the Western Mediterranean (Spain). To address the challenges we develop an Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP)-oriented geodatabase of maritime activities and deploy three spatial models: 1) an analysis of regional contribution to the 30% protection commitment with Biodiversity Strategy 2030; 2) a spatial Maritime Use Conflict (MUC) analysis to address current and future maritime activities interactions and 3) the StressorGenerator QGIS application to locate current and anticipate future sea areas of highest anthropogenic stress. Results show that the i) study area is one of the most protected sea areas in the Mediterranean (44-51% of sea space protected); ii) anthropogenic stressors are highest in 1-4 nautical miles coastal areas, where maritime activities agglomerate, in the Gulf of Roses and Gulf of Saint Jordi. iii) According to the available datasets commercial fishery is causing highest conflict score inside protected areas. Potential new aquaculture sites are causing highest conflict in Internal Waters and the high potential areas for energy cause comparably low to negligible spatial conflicts with other uses. We discuss the added value of performing regional MSP exercises and define five challenges for regional ocean sustainability, namely: Marine protection beyond percentage, offshore wind energy: a new space demand, crowded coastal areas, multi-level governance of the regional sea and MSP knowledge gaps.

Ocean Planning and Conservation in the Age of Climate Change: A Roundtable Discussion

Synopsis Over recent years, recognition of the need to develop climate-smart marine spatial planning (MSP) has gained momentum globally. In this roundtable discussion, we use a question-and-answer format to leverage diverse perspectives and voices involved in the study of sustainable MSP and marine conservation under global environmental and social change. We intend this dialogue to serve as a stepping stone toward developing ocean planning initiatives that are sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient around the globe.

Could fish aggregation at ocean aquaculture augment wild populations and local fisheries?

The global population consumes more seafood from aquaculture today than from capture fisheries and although the aquaculture industry continues to grow, both seafood sectors will continue to be important to the global food supply into the future. As farming continues to expand into ocean systems, understanding how wild populations and fisheries will interact with farms will be increasingly important to informing sustainable ocean planning and management. Using a spatially explicit population and fishing model we simulate several impacts from ocean aquaculture (i.e., aggregation, protection from fishing, and impacts on fitness) to evaluate the mechanisms underlying interactions between aquaculture, wild populations and fisheries. We find that aggregation of species to farms can increase the benefits of protection from fishing that a farm provides and can have greater impacts on more mobile species. Splitting total farm area into smaller farms can benefit fishery catches, whereas larger farms can provide greater ecological benefits through conservation of wild populations. Our results provide clear lessons on how to design and co-manage expanding ocean aquaculture along with wild capture ecosystem management to benefit fisheries or conservation objectives.

Protected species considerations for ocean planning: A case study for offshore wind energy development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

AbstractObjectiveOcean planning provides opportunities for managers to evaluate tradeoffs among environmental, social, economic, cultural, and management considerations in the development of place‐based activities. Early integration of mobile protected species considerations into ocean planning reduces the likelihood of future resource conflict. Transparency and problem solving with potential conflicts in mind during the early planning stages can help to minimize contention and increase efficiency in permitting and may also minimize litigation challenges during project design and implementation. Starting with a large area, such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) initial 12.1‐million‐ha call area in federal waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, provided substantial geographic scope for identifying suitable areas for eventual offshore wind lease sales that also aim to minimize conflict across multiple resources and uses.MethodsTo support ocean planning for this large‐scale activity, a generalized scoring system for protected species status and trends that facilitates relative comparison between species was developed. Spatial data for species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act or the Marine Mammal Protection Act were assembled. Species layers were scored based on species status and trend. The cumulative vulnerability for 23 species groups whose distributions overlap suitable areas proposed for eventual lease sales, termed wind energy areas (WEAs) by BOEM, was calculated.ResultIntegrating this combined protected species data layer into the broader Gulf of Mexico WEA ocean planning process helped to reduce potential protected species conflicts by 70%.ConclusionThis generalized approach is directly applicable to other WEAs under consideration within the United States and is transferable to a variety of ocean spatial planning applications.

Marine Spatial Planning in Canadian Arctic Shipping Governance: Exploring Its Application in the Northern Low-impact Shipping Corridors Initiative

Abstract This article examines different integrated management frameworks and area-based measures in Canada’s integrated ocean management regime, including their definitions, features and practices. It explicitly analyzes ma-rine spatial planning (MSP) and its practice in Canada’s Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts. Case studies, including the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management (ESSIM) initiative, Pacific North Coast Integrated Manage-ment Area (PNCIMA) initiative, and Marine Plan Partnership (MaPP), show that MSP has brought additional value to comprehensive ocean planning and facilitated integrated shipping governance. Arctic marine traffic gov-ernance requires an integrated and holistic framework to address the inti-mate relationship and complex interaction between humans and the envi-ronment. The potential application of MSP in developing and governing the Northern Low Impact Shipping Corridors initiative is examined. MSP is con-sidered as a framework or an approach to inform better decision-making for the Corridors initiative from five perspectives: 1) improving interdepart-mental and cross-jurisdictional collaboration; 2) enhancing Inuit engage-ment; 3) encouraging knowledge co-production; 4) supporting data collec-tion and spatial analysis; and 5) facilitating implementation and adaptation of the Corridor initiative.

A geoportal of data and tools for supporting Maritime Spatial Planning in the Adriatic-Ionian Region

The multiple anthropogenic threats to marine ecosystems and the increasing spatial conflicts in the Adriatic-Ionian Region (AIR) require transnational, integrated and efficient planning of coastal and marine spaces at macro-regional level. This research presents the Geoportal of the Adriatic-Ionian Region (GAIR), a common platform for information, data and decision support tools for ocean planning in the Adriatic-Ionian sea space. The GAIR is an open source platform; it supports co-production of MSP-relevant knowledge based on 12 databases, portals and tools developed within a set of European projects supporting the implementation of the European Strategy for the AIR (EUSAIR). The study presents the GAIR's software architecture, its technological stack and the seven integrated geospatial tools. A case study of the tool presents its user workflow and main outputs. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the GAIR with respect to MSP, Sustainable Blue Economy and the implementation of the EUSAIR Action Plan.

Quantifying spatial extents of artificial versus natural reefs in the seascape

With increasing human uses of the ocean, existing seascapes containing natural habitats, such as biogenic reefs or plant-dominated systems, are supplemented by novel, human-made habitats ranging from artificial reefs to energy extraction infrastructure and shoreline installments. Despite the mixture of natural and artificial habitats across seascapes, the distribution and extent of these two types of structured habitats are not well understood but are necessary pieces of information for ocean planning and resource management decisions. Through a case study, we quantified the amount of seafloor in the southeastern US (SEUS; 103,220 km2 in the Atlantic Ocean; 10 – 200 m depth) covered by artificial reefs and natural reefs. We developed multiple data-driven approaches to quantify the extent of artificial reefs within state-managed artificial reef programs, and then drew from seafloor maps and published geological and predictive seafloor habitat models to develop three estimates of natural reef extent. Comparisons of the extent of natural and artificial reefs revealed that artificial reefs account for substantially less habitat (average of two estimates 3 km2; <0.01% of SEUS) in the region than natural reefs (average of three estimates 2,654 km2; 2.57% of SEUS) and that this pattern holds across finer regional groupings (e.g., states, depth bins). Our overall estimates suggest that artificial reef coverage is several orders of magnitude less than natural reef coverage. While expansive seafloor mapping and characterization efforts are still needed in SEUS waters, our results fill information gaps regarding the extent of artificial and natural reef habitats in the region, providing support for ecosystem-based management, and demonstrating an approach applicable to other regions.

The emerging intersection between marine spatial planning and ocean accounting: A global review and case studies

Ocean planning and management is often tasked with balancing multiple policy priorities, such as the growth of ocean-related sectors, conserving ecosystem health and biodiversity, and considerations of equity and inclusivity. Over the last two decades, aligning and operationalising such priorities has increasingly been addressed through Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), which analyses and allocates human activities within the marine domain. In parallel, Ocean Accounting (OA) is an emergent framework that extends existing international accounting standards to better measure the contribution of the ocean to society and the economy. Both frameworks are ‘integrative’, combining knowledge from multiple domains, to support decision-making towards ocean policy objectives. Here, we present the first analysis of the intersection between MSP and OA, to identify operational opportunities and barriers for co-development. We present a global review of OA- and MSP-related activities and perform a SWOT analysis of their implementation within five case countries (Australia, Canada, Portugal, South Africa, and Thailand). We identified 26 countries that have completed, or progressing, OA and MSP, of which only two countries demonstrated an overlap between frameworks. Within countries with completed MSP, there were no clear links between the policy use-cases of both frameworks (i.e., focus on the ocean economy or ecosystem conservation). In-depth analyses of five countries identified both opportunities and barriers through similar policy drivers, data sharing and shared implementing institutions. As high-level policy intent and investment drives the increasing use of both frameworks, an understanding of their co-development advances integrated and evidence-based ocean governance.

Climate-Related Vulnerability and Risk Assessment of Main Ocean Uses: An Overview

Vulnerability and risk analyses have been increasingly used in a wide variety of contexts to support ocean management and planning processes. Depending on the context, such analyses may focus on different dimensions, spatial scales, and hazards. In the particular context of climate change, the variability inherent to the developed assessments has led to the emergence of numerous methodological frameworks, allowing for advances in the field while raising uncertainties on applied concepts, definitions, and approaches. In the present study, we developed a systematic literature review to analyze and discuss the key concepts, methodologies, and limitations of existing vulnerability and risk assessments of main ocean uses to global climate change. We analyzed over 314 scientific references regarding the elements considered in the analysis (e.g., exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity), dimensions (e.g., ecological, economic, social), type of indicators (e.g., quantitative, qualitative), maritime activities, climate-related drivers of change, and spatial scales. Results show that most vulnerability and risk assessments address fisheries and marine conservation, and that sea-level rise and extreme events are the most frequently considered climate-related drivers of change. The main identified limitations pertain to the level of subjectivity and the tremendous variety of concepts, areas of expertise, and systems addressed in such studies. We highlight that further research is needed particularly on the development of cross-sectoral studies and integrative approaches, using multiple indicators and frameworks. There is also a need for assessments explicitly designed to support ocean planning and integrated marine management processes. Review processes such as the present one provide a “big picture,” allowing for a global view on complex topics, and contributing to advances in the field.

Fitting ecological principles of artificial reefs into the ocean planning puzzle

AbstractHumans use the coastal ocean and its resources as a source of food and energy, as well as for a variety of other purposes, including transportation and recreation. Over the past several decades, uses of the coastal ocean have been increasingly accompanied by the installation of artificial structures. These artificial structures come in different shapes and sizes, ranging from energy and aquaculture infrastructure that incidentally form habitat for marine organisms to artificial reefs that are often deployed intentionally to become habitat. Marine spatial planning has offered a robust framework for siting artificial structures to minimize conflicts with other uses and maximize societal and economic benefits with other intended uses of the seascape, but ecological criteria are seldom considered in the planning process. In contrast, artificial reefs are intentionally sunk to form structured habitat and provide a variety of ecological functions, yet ecological principles are not often incorporated into the siting and planning process. Instead, artificial reefs are sited largely to advance societal and economic benefits and minimize conflicts with other uses, such as shipping traffic, military use, or impacts to sensitive areas. We outline a framework to further incorporate ecological principles into artificial reef siting, design and construction, and evaluation that features place‐based and adaptive management coupled with tenets from experimental field ecology. This framework accounts for complexities of and interactions among ecological, societal, and economic criteria associated with artificial reefs to ensure they meet defined goals.

An assessment of marine, estuarine, and riverine habitat vulnerability to climate change in the Northeast U.S.

Climate change is impacting the function and distribution of habitats used by marine, coastal, and diadromous species. These impacts often exacerbate the anthropogenic stressors that habitats face, particularly in the coastal environment. We conducted a climate vulnerability assessment of 52 marine, estuarine, and riverine habitats in the Northeast U.S. to develop an ecosystem-scale understanding of the impact of climate change on these habitats. The trait-based assessment considers the overall vulnerability of a habitat to climate change to be a function of two main components, sensitivity and exposure, and relies on a process of expert elicitation. The climate vulnerability ranks ranged from low to very high, with living habitats identified as the most vulnerable. Over half of the habitats examined in this study are expected to be impacted negatively by climate change, while four habitats are expected to have positive effects. Coastal habitats were also identified as highly vulnerable, in part due to the influence of non-climate anthropogenic stressors. The results of this assessment provide regional managers and scientists with a tool to inform habitat conservation, restoration, and research priorities, fisheries and protected species management, and coastal and ocean planning.

Ocean planning for species on the move provides substantial benefits and requires few trade-offs.

Societies increasingly use multisector ocean planning as a tool to mitigate conflicts over space in the sea, but such plans can be highly sensitive to species redistribution driven by climate change or other factors. A key uncertainty is whether planning ahead for future species redistributions imposes high opportunity costs and sharp trade-offs against current ocean plans. Here, we use more than 10,000 projections for marine animals around North America to test the impact of climate-driven species redistributions on the ability of ocean plans to meet their goals. We show that planning for redistributions can substantially reduce exposure to risks from climate change with little additional area set aside and with few trade-offs against current ocean plan effectiveness. Networks of management areas are a key strategy. While climate change will severely disrupt many human activities, we find a strong benefit to proactively planning for long-term ocean change.

Bedload Sediment Rate Prediction for the Sand Transport Along Coastal Waters in Ocean Management Strategy

Interactions among different landforms and varied complicated physical processes cause sediment transport in coastal regions being the interest of ocean management planning studies. In coastal zones, the derivation of the bedload sediment transport rate and the flow velocity distribution is done by entropy theory which assumes the modified spatiotemporal disorder power index (MSTDPI) and the time-averaged flow velocity (as a random variable). Studying the deposition trend of bedload sediment transport rate for the sand particle (BLSTRS) and estimating the coastal erosion rate as a case study, the Makran coast is selected. To analyze the spatiotemporal patterns, the disorder power index (entropy-power) method is applied in this study where the monthly data of six Makran coastal sections from January 1970 to December 2015 are used. The studied data are mainly focused on the correlation of the flow rate of the sediment from the Makran River, and the spatiotemporal patterns of BLSTRS. Despite their meaningful spatiotemporal variability, it is not very easy to explain how the abovementioned variables perform together; the entropy-power index allows a better understanding of the combined performance of such parameters as the flow velocity and sediment transport by showing clearer signals for the assessment of coastal engineering issues at very large (coastal) scales.

Research on the Development of Marine Information Technology in the Era of Big Data

You, L.; Zhang, G., and Wang, L., 2020. Research on the development of marine information technology in the era of big data. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 624–627. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.At present, the marine economy has become a new growth point in China's national economic growth. Using information management technology to develop and protect marine resources reasonably can promote the sustainable development of the marine economy. However, various departments related to marine affairs have different understandings of marine informatization management over the years, resulting in their work being independent with a low degree of information sharing. When establishing the information system, the lack of unified deployment and planning of resources, low use rate of the resources, low processing efficiency of the massive data, the difficulty in system maintenance, and the high cost of independent operation have all seriously affected the efficiency of marine information management. To solve that, this research analyzed marine informatization management based on the era of big data. Marine information sharing technology under big data are discussed. A framework for the sharing of ocean information planning is constructed. This article puts forward the idea of combining marine information technology with cloud computing and relevant suggestions, which provides beneficial references for marine information management.

David Langlet and Rosemary Rayfuse, eds., Ecosystem Approach in Ocean Planning and Governance: Perspectives from Europe and Beyond (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2019), 466 pp.

David Langlet and Rosemary Rayfuse, eds., Ecosystem Approach in Ocean Planning and Governance: Perspectives from Europe and Beyond (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2019), 466 pp.

Integrating climate change in ocean planning

The acceleration of global warming and increased vulnerability of marine social-ecological systems affect the benefits provided by the ocean. Spatial planning of marine areas is vital to balance multiple human demands and ensure a healthy ocean, while supporting global ocean goals. To thrive in a changing ocean though, marine spatial planning (MSP) must effectively integrate climate change. By reviewing existing literature on MSP and climate change, we explore the links between them and with ocean sustainability, highlight management challenges, and identify potential pathways to guide action towards the effective integration of climate impacts in MSP. A review of marine spatial planning literature identifies links with climate change and gaps in the practical integration of both concepts.

The portal is the plan: governing US oceans in regional assemblages

We apply theories of environmental governance, assemblage, and geo-epistemology to critically reflect on ocean planning in federal waters of the USA. US ocean planning was initiated in July 2010 when President Obama issued Executive Order 13547; this set in motion what was then called coastal and marine spatial planning, but without a congressional legislative mandate or budgetary appropriation. There are many reasons we might expect ocean planning to be centered in the US federal government, but ocean planning is transpiring in a neoliberal era in which there is little enthusiasm for “big government” and its projects. Thus, the project has been one of governance, with federal and state agencies participating along with non-government actors. What does a public planning process of this scope and geographic extent look like as a project of environmental governance? We focus on governance actors and the scale at which they operate, as well as the data infrastructure to support ocean planning, to analyze how US ocean planning is both illustrative of and contributes to our understanding of contemporary environmental governance. We have argued elsewhere that ocean planning in the USA has the potential to deliver outcomes alternative to marginalization of communities and enclosure of environments for capital accumulation, but this potential is fragile. In an era of unstable government when executive orders can be issued and revoked at the whim of the White House, questions about who/how ocean planning is carried in real space/time become even more important.

Biological and Physical Effects of Brine Discharge from the Carlsbad Desalination Plant and Implications for Future Desalination Plant Constructions

Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination is increasingly used as a technology for addressing shortages of freshwater supply and desalination plants are in operation or being planned world-wide and specifically in California, USA. However, the effects of continuous discharge of high-salinity brine into coastal environments are ill-constrained and in California are an issue of public debate. We collected in situ measurements of water chemistry and biological indicators in coastal waters (up to ~2 km from shore) before and after the newly constructed Carlsbad Desalination Plant (Carlsbad, CA, USA) began operations. A bottom water salinity anomaly indicates that the spatial footprint of the brine discharge plume extended about 600 m offshore with salinity up to 2.7 units above ambient (33.2). This exceeds the maximum salinity permitted for this location based on the California Ocean Plan (2015 Amendment to Water Quality Control Plan). However, no significant changes in the assessed biological indicators (benthic macrofauna, BOPA-index, brittle-star survival and growth) were observed at the discharge site. A model of mean ocean wave potential was used as an indicator of coastal mixing at Carlsbad Beach and at other locations in southern and central CA where desalination facilities are proposed. Our results indicated that to minimize environmental impacts discharge should target waters where a long history of anthropogenic activity has already compromised the natural setting. To ensure adequate mixing of the discharge brine desalination plants should be constructed at high-energy sites with sandy substrates, and discharge through diffusor systems.

Considering the impact of observation error correlation in ensemble square-root Kalman filter

Data assimilation has been developed into an effective technology that can utilize a large number of multisource unconventional data. It cannot only provide the initial field for the ocean numerical prediction model, but also construct the ocean reanalysis datasets and provide the design basis for the ocean observation plan. In data assimilation, the estimation of the observation error is of paramount importance, because the quality of the analysis depends on it. In general, the observation error covariance matrix is diagonal or assumed to be diagonal, which means that the observation errors are independent from one another. However, there are indeed correlations in the observation errors. A diagnostic method has been developed, which can estimate a correlated and more accurate observation error covariance matrix. The proposed method combines an ensemble squareroot Kalman filter with the diagnostic method, providing an estimation of the observation error covariance matrix. In order to test the performance of the method, the numerical experiments are performed with the Lorenz 96 model and a Shallow water model. The more accurate observation error covariance matrix can be obtained to use in ensemble square-root Kalman filter by using the new method. We could find using the estimated correlated observation error in the data assimilation improves the analysis.

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

Ecosystem based management (EBM) is an ocean management theory that examines an ecosystem holistically, accounting for both human uses and natural processes. EBM has gained popularity due to growing conflicts over ocean space, fueled by increasing demands for natural resources and a rising awareness for environmental values. EBM asserts that by scoping short-term natural resource exploitation to allow for the preservation of the ecosystem's core structure and function, sustainable long-term exploitation can be achieved. Therefore, determining the ecosystem's structure and function is a main tenet to EBM. To translate EBM theory to practice, important ecological areas, or “ecological hotspots,” are identified to understand the core ecosystem spaces that drive overall function. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a process in which to operationalize EBM theory, including ecological hotspots. The literature has taken time to assess EBM from the theoretical perspective, however few studies exist that examine EBM-MSP interactions as EBM theory is translated into practice and secondly compare approaches across countries. This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of how ecological hotspots were (or are being) identified within two ecosystems, the Barents Sea and Gulf of Maine. The EBM ocean plans to be assessed are the Norwegian Barents Sea-Lofoten ocean management plan (BSMP) and the U.S. Northeast Ocean Plan (NEOP). It is found that the motivating factors that prompted the development of the BSMP and NEOP influenced when and how quickly ecological hotspots were determined. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion revolving around how EBM-MSP decision-making processes are operationalized.