Ocean Planning Research Articles

An Indigenous approach to ocean planning and policy in the Bering Strait region of Alaska

Bringing western science and policy together with Traditional Knowledge and values from indigenous communities for ocean planning is lacking and a framework is needed. This article articulates indigenous perspectives about the ocean and a culturally appropriate methodology developed in the Bering Strait region for a visioning process that can be used to bridge western and indigenous value systems. Recommendations for an indigenous approach focused on inclusion, the examination of values, adequate representation, and Tribal direction in ocean planning and policy are made. This approach is needed to move forward on a path to achieving more equitable, sustainable and inclusive ocean planning for the future.

Habitat risk assessment for regional ocean planning in the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

Coastal habitats provide important benefits to people, including habitat for species targeted by fisheries and opportunities for tourism and recreation. Yet, such human activities also can imperil these habitats and undermine the ecosystem services they provide to people. Cumulative risk assessment provides an analytical framework for synthesizing the influence of multiple stressors across habitats and decision-support for balancing human uses and ecosystem health. To explore cumulative risk to habitats in the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Ocean Planning regions, we apply the open-source InVEST Habitat Risk Assessment model to 13 habitats and 31 stressors in an exposure-consequence framework. In doing so, we advance the science priorities of EBM and both regional planning bodies by synthesizing the wealth of available data to improve our understanding of human uses and how they affect marine resources. We find that risk to ecosystems is greatest first, along the coast, where a large number of stressors occur in close proximity and secondly, along the continental shelf, where fewer, higher consequence activities occur. Habitats at greatest risk include soft and hard-bottom nearshore areas, tidal flats, soft-bottom shelf habitat, and rocky intertidal zones—with the degree of risk varying spatially. Across all habitats, our results indicate that rising sea surface temperatures, commercial fishing, and shipping consistently and disproportionally contribute to risk. Further, our findings suggest that management in the nearshore will require simultaneously addressing the temporal and spatial overlap as well as intensity of multiple human activities and that management in the offshore requires more targeted efforts to reduce exposure from specific threats. We offer a transparent, generalizable approach to evaluating cumulative risk to multiple habitats and illustrate the spatially heterogeneous nature of impacts along the eastern Atlantic coast and the importance of spatial scale in estimating such impacts. These results offer a valuable decision-support tool by helping to constrain the decision space, focus attention on habitats and locations at the greatest risk, and highlight effect management strategies.

An entropy theory for the spatiotemporal patterns of the environmental matrix in the nearshore parameters

Understanding the temporal and spatial variability of sediment transport at regional scales is of great value for various purposes; however, relevant studies are still limited and have yielded inconsistent findings about the primary controls on regional temporal and spatial variability of bed load sediment transport rate (BLSTR). In this paper, sediment transport was investigated by a combination of spatiotemporal patterns and entropy theory modelling. Effort has been made in this paper to develop an entropy theory by assuming the time-averaged wave height as a random variable and applying the disorder power index to derive wave height distribution and rate of bed load sediment transport in coastal zones for ocean management planning. To analyze the spatio-temporal patterns, this study uses: A method that needs a disorder power index (entropy-power), uses the long time (1970–2015 monthly) data were retrieved of six large-scale monitoring networks located in the Makran coastal area (located in southeastern Iran), and shows the index suitability for hydrological/marine ecosystem components analyses using a coastal area case study, and studies flow velocity speed, wave and spatio-temporal patterns of BLSTR each of which is dependent on time and has an important role in terrestrial coastal/ocean studies. The combined performance of the above mentioned variables is difficult to describe (although their spatio-temporal variability is mostly meaningful) and, regarding this context, entropy-power index shows signals useful to assess coastal engineering issues and makes the understanding of wave height and sediment transport parameters interactions possible at nearshore zone scales. The advantage of using the entropy theory is that it permits quantification of uncertainty associated with concentration and determination of parameters in terms of specified information, such as mean concentration.

Pesticide removal through wastewater and advanced treatment: full-scale sampling and bench-scale testing.

Dieldrin and DDx removal through wastewater treatment, ozonation, and microfiltration was assessed for a water reuse project for groundwater replenishment in Monterey, California, USA. Full-scale sampling was conducted at the wastewater treatment plant, and physical wastewater treatment processes, ozonation, and microfiltration were tested at the bench scale. Removals observed through wastewater treatment, ozonation, and microfiltration were 84%, 44% to 63%, and 97% to 98%, respectively, for dieldrin, and 93%, 36% to 48%, and 92% to 94% for DDx. These were sufficient to meet California Ocean Plan water quality objectives after wastewater treatment alone. Levels in the secondary effluent, ahead of ozonation, microfiltration, reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation in the advanced water purification facility, met drinking water standards. Removal of dieldrin and DDx through wastewater treatment occurred by physical treatment processes; removal through the full-scale wastewater treatment plant, which included biological and physical treatment processes, matched removal through the physical bench-scale wastewater treatment processes. Dieldrin and DDx removal correlated with removal of volatile suspended solids, suggesting that volatile suspended solids could be used as an indicator for pesticide removal through wastewater treatment. Dieldrin and DDx concentrations were highest in the solids contact process, where biomass is accumulated for carbon removal.

Exclusion and non-participation in Marine Spatial Planning

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) offers the possibility of democratising management of the seas. MSP is, however, increasingly implemented as a form of post-political planning, dominated by the logic of neoliberalism, and a belief in the capacity of managerial-technological apparatuses to address complex socio-political problems, with little attention paid to issues of power and inequality. There is growing concern that MSP is not facilitating a paradigm shift towards publicly engaged marine management, and that it may simply repackage power dynamics in the rhetoric of participation to legitimise the agendas of dominant actors. This raises questions about the legitimacy and inclusivity of participatory MSP. Research on stakeholder engagement within MSP has predominately focused on assessing experiences of active MSP participants and has not evaluated the democratic or inclusive nature of these processes. Adopting the Northeast Ocean Planning initiative in the US as a case study, this paper provides the first study of exclusion and non-participation of stakeholders in an MSP process. Three major issues are found to have had an impact on exclusion and non-participation: poor communication and a perception that the process was deliberately exclusionary; issues arising from fragmented governance, territorialisation and scale; and lack of specificity regarding benefits or losses that might accrue from the process. To be effective, participatory MSP practice must: develop mechanisms that recognise the complexity of socio-spatial relationships in the marine environment; facilitate participation in meaningful spatial decision-making, rather than in post-ideological, objective-setting processes; and create space for debate about the very purpose of MSP processes.

The Role of Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal in Supporting Ocean Planning

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) was established in 2009 to enhance the vitality of the region's ocean ecosystem and economy. One of MARCO’s first action items was the development of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal to serve as an on-line platform to engage stakeholders across the region with the objective of improving their understanding of how ocean resources and places are being used, managed, and conserved. A key component is the Marine Planner, an interactive map-based visualization and decision support tool. These types of on-line tools are becoming increasingly popular means of putting essential data and state-of-the-art visualization technology into the hands of the agencies, industry, community leaders, and stakeholders engaged in ocean planning. However to be effective, the underlying geospatial data has to be seen as objective, comprehensive, up-to-date and regionally consistent. To meet this challenge, the portal utilizes a distributed network of web map services from credible and authoritative sources. Website analytics and feedback received during the review and comment period of the 2016 release of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Action Plan confirm that the Data Portal is viewed as integral to this ocean planning process by the MidAtlantic Regional Planning Body and key stakeholders. While not all stakeholders may agree with specific planning decisions, there is broad based agreement on the need for better data and making access to that data widely available.

Integrated planning that safeguards ecosystems and balances multiple objectives in coastal Belize

ABSTRACTA growing number of nations aim to design coastal plans to reduce conflicts in space and safeguard ecosystems that provide important benefits to people and economies. Critics of coastal and ocean planning point to a complicated process with many actors, objectives, and uncertain outcomes. This paper explores one such decision-making process in Belize, which combines ecosystem service modeling, stakeholder participation, and spatial planning to design the country’s first integrated coastal zone management plan, officially approved by the government in August 2016. We assessed risk to three coastal-marine habitats posed by eight human uses and quantified current and future delivery of three ecosystem services: protection from storms, catch and revenue from lobster fishing, and tourism expenditures to identify a preferred zoning scheme. We found that a highly adaptive team of planners, scientists, and analysts can overcome common planning obstacles, including a dearth of data describing the health of the coastal zone and the many uses it supports, complicated legal and political landscapes, and limited in-country technical capacity. Our work in Belize serves as an example for how to use science about the ways in which nature benefits people to effectively and transparently inform coastal and ocean planning decisions around the world.EDITED BY Joao Rodrigues

‘That's my livelihood, it's your fun’: The conflicting moral economies of commercial and recreational fishing

This paper uses a moral economy lens, further informed by political ecology, to explore social and political relationships between fishing groups. Understanding resource user groups’ moral economy discourses is critical given their potential influence on policy choices, and the real political and economic consequences of differential access to resources. This is particularly true for fishery resource access given current pushes for ocean planning and fears about the health of global fish stocks. Using a North Carolina case study of conflict over ‘game fish’ (fish reserved exclusively for recreational use), the paper explains how arguments over the material use of fishery resources, claims over ocean space, and ideas about the role of fish as a commodity fit into fishers’ larger moral economies. In doing so, it discusses fishers’ differing definitions of key concepts—like value, waste, and public resources—and how these divergent understandings contribute to miscommunication and conflict. This analysis finds that particular interpretations of ‘wise’ resource use have real consequences not only for specific people and communities but also for how political institutions demarcate the realm of possibilities for resource-use policies. The paper advances theoretical conversations about the role of moral economies in ‘first world’ locales and extends political ecology discussions of exurban landscape changes to ocean settings.

Identification of persistent benthic assemblages in areas with different temperature variability patterns through broad-scale mapping.

Ecosystem-based management is a place-based approach that considers the relationships between system parts. Due to the complexity of ecosystems in the marine environment it is often difficult to define these relationships in space and time. Maps illustrate spatial concepts. Here we promote ecosystem-based spatial thinking by layering datasets from a larger project that mapped benthic fauna, substrate characteristics, and oceanic conditions on monthly, annual and decadal time scales along the U.S. continental shelf. By combining maps of persistent benthic megafauna and bottom temperature variability over approximately 90,000 km2, we identified wide spread benthic animal assemblages and regional disparity in temperature variability. From a broad-scale perspective the locations of the assemblage appear to be related to sea scallop population dynamics and indicate potential regional differences in climate change resiliency. These findings offer information on a scale that correlates with marine spatial planning, and could be used as a starting point for further investigation. To spur additional analysis and facilitate their linkage to other datasets, these datasets are available through public, online data portals. Overall, this study demonstrates how the growth of maps from single to multiple elements can help promote and facilitate the multifactor, ecosystem-based thinking needed to support regional ocean planning.

Marine spatial planning as a tool for regional ocean governance?: An analysis of the New England ocean planning network

Marine spatial planning (MSP) requires extensive integration and collaboration between and among government agencies and non-governmental individuals and organizations. Such collaboration has also been identified as critical to the broader goal of achieving regional ocean governance. Social network analysis (SNA) is a suite of methods for systematically analyzing relations between individuals and organizations and provides insight into the extent and nature of collaboration and into governance networks more broadly. A SNA was conducted of the governance network shaping a regional MSP initiative in the New England region of the U.S. from 2012 to 2014, focusing in particular on a subset of key collaborators comprising the core of this network. The SNA was designed to investigate whether this network demonstrates the level of inter-organizational collaboration and integration that MSP scholars assert is needed to meaningfully improve regional ocean governance. Results suggest that the broader New England regional ocean planning network is large, decentralized, and of low density, thus well-suited to solving complex boundary-spanning problems like the management of ocean space. The core collaboration network is similarly diverse; well-connected and influential members of the core collaboration network include representatives of intergovernmental regional ocean partnerships, state government affiliates, and, to a lesser extent, federal government affiliates. Influential members also include key representatives of non-governmental organizations and universities. Conversely, local government affiliates are absent from the network, and ocean users and industry representatives are also absent from the core collaboration network but are included in the broader network and involved in the MSP process through targeted outreach efforts. These results indicate that both horizontal and vertical collaboration are being facilitated through the core collaboration network, though collaboration could be improved through greater participation by local government, users, and industry. This study illustrates how MSP, applied regionally, may help facilitate collaboration, thereby helping to advance a regional ocean governance approach, but that further research is needed to compare this case to others and to observe how this network sustains over time.

Ocean planning in a changing climate

Ocean planning in a changing climate

How does the cumulative impacts approach support Maritime Spatial Planning?

Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) needs to incorporate spatial information on human impacts. As human activities and uses increase in marine and coastal waters around the world, pressures in ecosystems are also increasing, leading to multiple adverse effects on different species and habitats. The European Directive on MSP aims to achieve an integrated approach to marine governance, whilst securing and maintaining the healthy status of marine and coastal waters, in accordance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The latter requires Member States to develop assessments not only on pressures and impacts, but also on the state of the marine environment and then take measures towards reaching a Good Environmental Status by 2020.The Portuguese Maritime Spatial Plan – Plano de Ordenamento do Espaço Marítimo (POEM) was developed between 2009 and 2012. In 2014 a law establishing the Basis for the Spatial Planning and Management of the National Maritime Space was enacted and in 2015 the framework for the elaboration of a new national Maritime Spatial Plan, named Situation Plan, was established. Portugal will face, in the next five years, the challenge of planning and managing its marine space, whilst promoting its sustainable use and protection.This study adapted a cumulative effects assessment model to understand how the impacts from multiple threats affect the marine and coastal ecosystems and, how this information can be used to improve the management process. Information was gathered on intensity and distribution of activities and uses for the Portuguese continental subdivision marine area, quantified and mapped their cumulative impacts in marine ecosystems, and overlapped with the POEM. Results show that impacts are spreading from the coast up to the Contiguous Zone. Higher scores appear in Transitional and Coastal Waters in the north (Viana do Castelo/Figueira da Foz), centre (Peniche/Setúbal) and south (Lagos/Faro). In some areas with higher ranks, statutes of nature conservation are already in place, but potential activities may still occur on top of existing ones. This study shows that the adapted model is a helpful tool to clarify ocean planning, identify areas of potential conflicts among users and support the decision making process.

Moving mussels offshore? Perceptions of offshore aquaculture policy and expansion in New England

Efforts to expand marine aquaculture into offshore environments have increased in the United States, however many questions remain about whether offshore aquaculture is a feasible and appropriate activity. This paper explores these questions by investigating stakeholder perceptions of offshore mussel aquaculture in New England, USA. These views provide insight into the important challenges and opportunities facing expansion, and elucidate whether and how industry may develop and be incorporated into ocean planning and management. Results shows that regulatory and financial conditions are considered the primary challenges facing offshore expansion, whereas technical, environmental, and market conditions were generally deemed favorable or manageable. There is greater uncertainty about social and political conditions. While moving mussel aquaculture offshore lessens the conflicts associated with inshore activity, it also moves industry into new spaces with unfamiliar users. There are tensions inherent in addressing these challenges. Whereas broad regulatory change will encourage offshore development, targeted government involvement may be more productive in the near term. Similarly, while large seafood companies may appear viable candidates for offshore development, they are also limited by regulatory, social, and political resistance. Overall, an increased emphasis on government interventions at the local and regional scale are desirable for proponents of offshore expansion. The paper discusses the management implications of these findings, and suggests that a shift in focus toward targeted and non-regulatory government interventions; local, regional, and informal planning discussions; and community-based and cooperative mussel aquaculture initiatives may hold promise for responsible development in New England offshore waters and elsewhere.

Assessment of wastewater impact on dissolved oxygen around southern California’s submerged ocean outfalls

Ocean wastewater dischargers in southern California maintain extensive water quality monitoring programs to assess their effects on coastal receiving waters, but there is no shared protocol to analyze these measurements for compliance with California Ocean Plan standards. Here we present an assessment methodology that we apply regionally to determine discharge effects on dissolved oxygen (DO). The methodology was developed using an optimization algorithm to determine the following: (1) the most appropriate number of reference sites to capture natural variability among sites without moving so far from the potentially affected site to confound the comparison with natural latitudinal and offshore gradients; (2) the thickness of depth slices for comparing profiles between reference and potentially affected sites that minimizes false positives from natural vertical variability while not being so large as to average out plume-caused deviations; and (3) an allowable difference from the reference mean associated with variability among reference profiles. The algorithm was based on maximizing the chance of detecting DO outranges in the effluent plume, while simultaneously minimizing the chance to falsely identify outranges at reference sites outside of the plume zone. The assessment methodology also differentiates DO outranges resulting from physical upward entrainment of deep, low-oxygen water by rising of lower density plume water, as opposed to outranges resulting from low-oxygen and oxygen demanding properties of the effluent, using temperature-oxygen relationships as a tracer of water masses. When the algorithm was applied to a ten year monitoring record from four discharge monitoring programs along the southern California coast, 11% of effluent sites were found to contain DO outranges, with about half of them resulting from deep water entrainment.

Challenges in implementing sustainable marine spatial planning: The new Portuguese legal framework case

Being a large maritime nation, the need to develop sustainable ocean planning and management processes in Portugal has been gaining increased importance in the last decade. After promulgating its first national framework law on maritime spatial planning (MSP), Portugal has recently approved a new MSP Diploma that aims at “developing” (i.e. implementing in detail) the framework law. This paper analyzes and discusses the new Portuguese MSP Diploma by (1) briefly presenting its main specificities; (2) analyzing its contents (and comparing them to the EU MSP Directive contents), namely in what pertains to environmental references; (3) analyzing the link between the EU Marine Strategy Directive (MSFD) and the MSP implementation in Portugal; and (4) discussing the main challenges that the Diploma poses to the long-term sustainability of Portuguese ocean management. Results show that environmental references represent only a small account on the Diploma contents (c. 2% against c. 5% in the EU MSP Directive); main environmental topics addressed include environmental “monitoring” and “evaluation”, “environmental protection”, “sustainability”, and “good (environmental) status”; and the ecosystem-based approach is never referred to. In Portugal the same government entity has responsibility over the implementation of both MSP and the MSFD, and such an institutional framework is expected to promote sustainable maritime uses as well as a true coordination/communication between both processes. The Diploma enshrines several “unusual” aspects that may compromise environmental sustainability. Although the new Portuguese MSP Diploma has been recently approved and promulgated, it may still be amended in the framework of a parliamentary discussion, therefore still having the opportunity to overcome the identified environmental challenges/concerns.

Assessing the impact of a new approach to ocean management: Evidence to date from five ocean plans

Previous studies have helped define what good ocean planning (also known as maritime or marine spatial planning) looks like, effective stakeholder engagement, possible conservation and community benefits, and how ocean plans could theoretically cut costs and create economic value. But little evidence has yet been compiled showing the actual results of ocean plans, and whether or not they have delivered on their promise to balance competing interests through a collaborative process that considers environmental concerns. This paper presents an empirical study of five government-approved ocean plans, all of which resulted in broadly shared net benefits. Economically, these five ocean plans delivered on average $60 million per year in value from new industries and retained value in existing industries, although some stakeholders bore losses and government spending did not decrease. Environmentally, planning increased marine protection, ensured industrial uses avoided sensitive habitat, cut carbon emissions, and reduced the risk of oil spills. Socially, marine planning increased broad stakeholder engagement (thus improving design and administration of plans), while building trust that will likely improve sustainable future use of ocean space.

Inventory and comparative evaluation of seabed mapping, classification and modeling activities in the Northwest Atlantic, USA to support regional ocean planning

Efforts are in motion globally to address coastal and marine management needs through spatial planning and concomitant seabed habitat mapping. Contrasting strategies are often evident in these processes among local, regional, national and international scientific approaches and policy needs. In answer to such contrasts among its member states, the United States Northeast Regional Ocean Council formed a Habitat Working Group to conduct a regional inventory and comparative evaluation of seabed characterization, classification, and modeling activities in New England. The goals of this effort were to advance regional understanding of ocean habitats and identify opportunities for collaboration. Working closely with the Habitat Working Group, we organized and led the inventory and comparative analysis with a focus on providing processes and tools that can be used by scientists and managers, updated and adapted for future use, and applied in other ocean management regions throughout the world. Visual schematics were a critical component of the comparative analysis and aided discussion among scientists and managers. Regional consensus was reached on a common habitat classification scheme (U.S. Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard) for regional seabed maps. Results and schematics were presented at a region-wide workshop where further steps were taken to initiate collaboration among projects. The workshop culminated in an agreement on a set of future seabed mapping goals for the region. The work presented here may serve as an example to other ocean planning regions in the U.S., Europe or elsewhere seeking to integrate a variety of seabed characterization, classification and modeling activities.

A practical approach for putting people in ecosystem‐based ocean planning

Marine and coastal ecosystems provide important benefits and services to coastal communities across the globe, but assessing the diversity of social relationships with oceans can prove difficult for conservation scientists and practitioners. This presents barriers to incorporating social dimensions of marine ecosystems into ecosystem‐based planning processes, which can in turn affect the success of planning and management initiatives. Following a global assessment of social research and related planning practices in ocean environments, we present a step‐by‐step approach for natural resource planning practitioners to more systematically incorporate social data into ecosystem‐based ocean planning. Our approach includes three sequential steps: (1) develop a typology of ocean‐specific human uses that occur within the planning region of interest; (2) characterize the complexity of these uses, including the spatiotemporal variability, intensity, and diversity thereof, as well as associated conflicts and compatibility; and (3) integrate social and ecological information to assess trade‐offs necessary for successful implementation of ecosystem‐based ocean planning. We conclude by showing how systematic engagement of social data – together with ecological information – can create advantages for practitioners to improve planning and management outcomes.

How sustainable is sustainable marine spatial planning? Part II – The Portuguese experience

With one of Europe׳s largest exclusive economic zones, Portugal has a paramount role in the implementation of EU maritime policies. In the Portuguese context, ocean planning and management are presently undergoing major advances. This paper analyzes and discusses the present state of affairs regarding the Portuguese marine spatial planning (MSP) process, comprising: (1) an update on the status of MSP in Portugal; (2) an analysis on how sustainability concepts are to be implemented in the Portuguese MSP process and (3) a discussion on major challenges to Portuguese MSP long-term sustainability. The Portuguese MSP process can be divided in two phases: development of the “Plano de Ordenamento do Espaço Marítimo” (POEM) – initially intended to be the first Portuguese “marine spatial plan” but then published as a “study”; and development of the Law Proposal 133/XII on marine planning and management – soon to be approved. A key question for the long-term adequacy of Portuguese MSP is how is it addressing environmental sustainability: is it relying on soft or hard sustainability concepts? Is it prioritizing the achievement of good environmental status (GES) or blue growth? In both cases (POEM and Law Proposal), soft sustainability seems to be the underlying principle, because although the ecosystem approach is recognized as fundamental, environmental quality seems to come second when set against economic goals.

Current Practice and Future Prospects for Social Data in Coastal and Ocean Planning

Coastal and ocean planning comprises a broad field of practice. The goals, political processes, and approaches applied to planning initiatives may vary widely. However, all planning processes ultimately require adequate information on both the biophysical and social attributes of a planning region. In coastal and ocean planning practice, there are well-established methods to assess biophysical attributes; however, less is understood about the role and assessment of social data. We conducted the first global assessment of the incorporation of social data in coastal and ocean planning. We drew on a comprehensive review of planning initiatives and a survey of coastal and ocean practitioners. There was significantly more incorporation of social data in multiuse versus conservation-oriented planning. Practitioners engaged a wide range of social data, including governance, economic, and cultural attributes of planning regions and human impacts data. Less attention was given to ecosystem services and social-ecological linkages, both of which could improve coastal and ocean planning practice. Although practitioners recognize the value of social data, little funding is devoted to its collection and incorporation in plans. Increased capacity and sophistication in acquiring critical social and ecological data for planning is necessary to develop plans for more resilient coastal and ocean ecosystems and communities. We suggest that improving social data monitoring, and in particular spatial social data, to complement biophysical data, is necessary for providing holistic information for decision-support tools and other methods. Moving beyond people as impacts to people as beneficiaries, through ecosystem services assessments, holds much potential to better incorporate the tenets of ecosystem-based management into coastal and ocean planning by providing targets for linked biodiversity conservation and human welfare outcomes.