Transboundary Marine Spatial Planning Research Articles

Addressing transboundary challenges: Exploring the interactive relations between collaborative governance and transboundary marine spatial planning in Europe

Transboundary challenges or issues have become the main drivers of collaborative governance (CG) in coastal and marine waters, contributing more specifically to the initiatives of transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP). The purpose of this article is to explore the interactive relations between CG and TMSP and consider how to combine them to solve transboundary problems. Based on literature review, the process of CG in a transboundary context is summarised to produce a theoretical framework for use in case study analysis of five European TMSP projects. These represent different regional seas and the study leads to a new model showing how the collaboration dimensions of TMSP have been established. The main findings are: (1) CG provided a theoretical and practical framework for the conceptual development of TMSP, especially in intergovernmental cooperation, cross-sectoral integration and multi-stakeholder engagement; (2) three existing CG dimensions, and an additional one of data harmonisation, constitute a four-dimensional assessment; (3) existing CG mechanisms or frameworks in any transboundary context, not just marine-related, can contribute to, and benefit from, TMSP; (4) TMSP has been proved to be an effective tool to promote marine CG, but requires higher collaboration performance and further capacity building to respond to transboundary challenges and ensure the sustainability of transboundary collaboration over time.

A risk-based approach to cumulative effects assessment for large marine ecosystems to support transboundary marine spatial planning: A case study of the yellow sea

Cumulative effects assessment (CEA) should be conducted at ecologically meaningful scales such as large marine ecosystems to halt further ocean degradation caused by anthropogenic pressures and facilitate ecosystem-based management such as transboundary marine spatial planning (MSP). However, few studies exist at large marine ecosystems scale, especially in the West Pacific seas, where countries have different MSP processes yet transboundary cooperation is paramount. Thus, a step-wise CEA would be informative to help bordering countries set a common goal. Building on the risk-based CEA framework, we decomposed CEA into risk identification and spatially-explicit risk analysis and applied it to the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME), aiming to understand the most influential cause-effect pathways and risk distribution pattern. The results showed that (1) seven human activities including port, mariculture, fishing, industry and urban development, shipping, energy, and coastal defence, and three pressures including physical loss of seabed, input of hazardous substances, nitrogen, and phosphorus enrichment were the leading causes of environmental problems in the YSLME; (2) benthic organisms, fishes, algae, tidal flats, seabirds, and marine mammals were the most vulnerable ecosystem components on which cumulative effects acted; (3) areas with relatively high risk mainly concentrated on nearshore zones, especially Shandong, Liaoning, and northern Jiangsu, while coastal bays of South Korea also witnessed high risk; (4) certain risks could be observed in the transboundary area, of which the causes were the pervasive fishing, shipping, and sinking of pollutants in this area due to the cyclonic circulation and fine-grained sediments. In future transboundary cooperation on MSP, risk criteria and evaluation of existing management measures should be incorporated to determine whether the identified risk has exceeded the acceptable level and identify the next step of cooperation. Our study presents an example of CEA at large marine ecosystems scale and provides a reference to other large marine ecosystems in the West Pacific and elsewhere.

Challenges and Enablers to Integrate Land-Sea-Interactions in Cross-Border Marine and Coastal Planning: Experiences from the Pan Baltic Scope Collaboration

ABSTRACT This paper analyses challenges and enablers for integrating a transboundary land-sea interaction (LSI) perspective into marine spatial planning (MSP) practice as experienced in the Baltic Sea Region. Collaborative research results from the Pan Baltic Scope project indicate that LSI remains an amorphous concept, particularly within a transboundary MSP context. Difficulty lies in bridging planning practices across land and sea and between varying uses, administrative settings and governance functions. Addressing LSI requires capacity, time, resources, awareness, reflection, and forums for collaborative learning across sectors and governance levels.

Incentive policies for transboundary marine spatial planning: an evolutionary game theory-based analysis

Marine spatial planning (MSP), which is a step-by-step approach for the ecosystem-based management (EBM) of global oceans, enables human activity and marine and coastal ecosystems conservation to occur simultaneously. It contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 14. However, the MSP, supposed as a transboundary policy-making process, is hampered by obstacles. Although existing studies have revealed significant obstacles and enablers for transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP), they have not analyzed how these factors affect government decision-making. To fill this gap, this paper takes the Xiamen–Kinmen Sea area in China as an example and analyses the interaction between the Xiamen–Zhangzhou–Quanzhou (XZQ) governments, the Kinmen government, and an introduced transboundary institution using evolutionary game theory. Numerical simulation is used to analyse the impact of influencing factors on the behaviors of different actors. The results demonstrate that: (1) the initial probability of the three parties directly affect the final stability; (2) net benefits have a positive incentivizing effect on the performance of the Promotion Group; (3) the value of eco-environmental losses reflects the urgency of collaborative governance by implementing TMSP; (4) transaction costs do not undermine collaboration, but do reduce the willingness of governments to participate if they are too high; and (5) the appropriate value of the transaction cost allocation coefficient should not exceed 0.9. This research may serve as an essential reference for the Xiamen–Kinmen Sea area for implementing EBM and provide general insights into the design of incentive policy recommendations for other regions for developing TMSP in shared waters.

Transboundary Marine Spatial Planning in European Sea Basins: Experimenting with Collaborative Planning and Governance

ABSTRACT This article employs a multi-disciplinary planning and political science perspective to examine transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP) in European sea basins through a collaborative governance and planning framework. The article argues that TMSP is a breeding ground for collaborative planning and governance in the Baltic Sea, North Sea and Adriatic Sea Regions. Collaborative governance and planning models can be developed into an effective framework for MSP policymakers, practitioners and researchers to structure and evaluate TMSP practices. The approach can potentially contribute towards overcoming TMSP challenges and to increasing cohesion and alignment of national marine spatial plans within European sea basins.

Transboundary marine spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region: towards a territorial governance approach?

This article examines whether the concept of territorial governance (TG) accurately captures the nature of governance and policymaking in transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP) activities in the Baltic Sea Region. The focus of analysis is on the DG Mare–funded Baltic SCOPE and Pan Baltic Scope projects, which brought together key marine spatial planning stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region to find solutions to TMSP issues. The five key dimensions of TG are examined against the transboundary collaborations undertaken during these two projects. The article finds that TMSP in the Baltic Sea Region shares many of the key characteristics of TG, such as, promoting learning and establishing stronger links between institutions, sectors and stakeholders; however, the TG concept fails to accurately capture the power dynamics at play in TMSP, particularly the central role of national planning authorities and certain sea use sectors in determining the overall direction of policy.

Institutional integration in transboundary marine spatial planning: A theory-based evaluative framework for practice

The governance of shared waters involves complex interactions between actors and institutions embedded in different legislative approaches, cultures and administrative procedures. Marine Spatial Planning can address the transboundary dimension of marine governance, based on its potential to foster integration between sectoral agencies, regulatory bodies and local stakeholders when making decisions about the distribution of coastal and maritime uses. Coordination between activities and practices of actors in planning transboundary areas is imperative in advancing sustainability. This paper seeks to make a contribution to the evolving field of MSP by expanding the dimensions of integration in MSP to consider institutional integration. In doing so, the paper reviews pivotal literature on MSP and makes an argument that existing studies on integration in MSP are structured in an inductive manner and focused on national and sea-basin cases. In response to addressing these gaps, we used the social systems theory and related theories, as an overarching and valuable lens to understand the institutional challenges of planning across maritime borders. Based on these lenses, we present an evaluation framework that uses the metaphor of a ‘wheel’ to indicate iterative stages (observation, initial impact, response, recovery and stabilisation) that are shaped by dimensions including structural alignment, self-oriented action, and collaborative capacity. This is followed by discussion about the potential application and next steps for enhancing the utility of the framework. In conclusion, the paper adds to the growing discourse on transboundary MSP by presenting a deductive framework that can be applied to different context and multi-governance levels to understand institutional integration.

The Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast – MaPP: A collaborative and co-led marine planning process in British Columbia

For more than a decade, marine spatial planning has been used around the world to advance objectives for conservation, economic development, and ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) in British Columbia began with the development of land use plans in the 1990s to address coastal and land use issues related to terrestrial land management. Managing marine resources is challenging on Canada’s Pacific coast because of multiple, overlapping jurisdictions, unceded indigenous territories, and lack of coordination amongst governments in the region and their agencies. The Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast (MaPP) was formed in 2011 and was a co-led partnership between 18 First Nations’ and the Province of British Columbia governments. The purpose of the MaPP Initiative was to develop and implement marine plans for 102,000 square kilometers of coastal and offshore water in northern British Columbia. A co-led governance framework included the member First Nations and the Provincial government structured into multiple levels of decisions making, conflict resolution, and technical support. Integral to the planning process was broad and continual stakeholder engagement through multiple advisory committees as well as public engagement. The planning process made use of multiple information sources including traditional, scientific, and local knowledge and was completed in 3.5 years. The result was the development and signing into policy of four sub-regional marine plans (one for each of the four MaPP sub-regions: Haida Gwaii, North Coast, Central Coast, and North Vancouver Island) and a Regional Action Framework. The sub-regional plans delineate protection, special, and general management zones for multiple objectives and will inform future policy decisions for marine protected areas, tenures, resource management and coastal development through an EBM approach. The plans will inform permits for marine tenures including aquaculture, offshore renewable energy siting, contribute to Canada’s marine protected areas network, and improve coastal infrastructure. The Regional Action Framework highlights activities to occur across the entire region through five main activity areas (Regional Governance, Ecological Integrity and Human Well-being, Compliance and Enforcement, Cumulative Effects Assessment, and Zoning Recommendations). Funding for planning was through a public-private model that also supported the development of the plans and decision support tools (e.g. planning and mapping portal). Discussions regarding implementation began during the planning phase to ensure long-term commitment from the Partners and continuity to improve decision making and management within the MaPP area. The process design and methodology created by MaPP can be a model for planning in areas that involve multiple authorities, complex geographies and jurisdictional arrangements that can be scaled up for regional, cross border, and transboundary marine spatial planning.

Transboundary marine spatial planning across Europe: Trends and priorities in nearly two decades of project work

As an instrument intended, amongst other things, to reduce transboundary conflicts, Transboundary Marine Spatial Planning (TMSP) has gained significant attention by coastal nations and regions recently, especially in Europe. Rather than leading to a joint marine spatial plan, TMSP is more of a continuous process of transboundary cooperation. This paper discusses the understandings of TMSP, tracks current progress of TMSP projects in Europe and examines their underlying priorities, so as to gain lessons and experience for the development of TMSP in the future. Using the project database of the European MSP Platform, European TMSP-related projects were subject to quantitative and qualitative analysis. The main findings are: (1) there are two accelerating periods of TMSP project development (2006–2010, 2014–2016), which coincide with relevant EU policy development, with the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas accounting for more projects than other sea basins; (2) TMSP projects in different sea basins have different priorities in marine activities and cross-cutting issues, with fisheries and conservation having the largest proportions respectively; (3) most projects are focusing on the pre-planning stages of marine spatial planning processes, and no attention has yet been given to plan implementation in the TMSP projects.

Towards sustainability of marine governance: Challenges and enablers for stakeholder integration in transboundary marine spatial planning in the Baltic Sea

Integrating stakeholder knowledge, views and needs in marine or maritime spatial planning (MSP) processes is important from a governance and social sustainability perspective both for MSP practitioners and for the evolving field of MSP research. Transboundary MSP appears particularly challenging for participation, which is why it is important to identify opportunities and address obstacles for stakeholder integration in this specific context. This article examines how stakeholder integration is currently practiced in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), an enclosed sea where policy coherence and addressing conflicting interests across borders are especially relevant. It synthesises a range of challenges and enablers for stakeholder participation and mobilisation that have emerged from two transboundary MSP research and development projects, BaltSpace and Baltic SCOPE. The article finds that with the exception of statutory authorities, stakeholder engagement in the BSR is mostly limited to self-motivated stakeholders and consultation rather than more inclusive forms of participation. This can reduce the quality and legitimacy of MSP processes and risks to concentrate power in the hands of a small group of actors. For transboundary stakeholder integration to become more interactive and effective, five types of challenges need attention, regarding a) timing, b) governance systems, c) capacity and processes, d) stakeholder characteristics and e) knowledge and language. These obstacles can be addressed by (1) a dedicated research and development agenda that critically reflects on integrative tools and processes, and (2) by encouraging transnational institutions in the BSR to devote more resources to transboundary stakeholder integration and adopt flexible and adaptive strategies and tools that can facilitate stakeholder involvement throughout the MSP policy cycle.

International good practices for facilitating transboundary collaboration in Marine Spatial Planning

The “Joint Roadmap to Accelerate Marine Spatial Planning Processes Worldwide”, adopted by IOC-UNESCO and the European Commission (DG-MARE) in 2017, highlights the growing commitment of policy and decision-makers in developing transboundary collaboration relevant to Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) as a mechanism for promoting sustainable sea use. While collaboration across borders represents positive progress towards global environmental stewardship and international cooperation, transboundary MSP can present challenges and obstacles as it can be a complex process involving different parties and stakeholders across multiple levels of governance. In this article, we examine the different enabling factors and good practices that emerge from two different DG-MARE-funded knowledge exchange projects on transboundary MSP, whose findings led to the development of the Joint Roadmap: the Baltic SCOPE Project, and the Study on International Best Practices for Cross-Border MSP. Recognising that MSP processes are specific to their respective contexts, we aim to provide guidance and support towards the development of effective collaboration in future transboundary MSP initiatives by offering inspiration in the approaches and tools used elsewhere. We hope this will enable others to reflect on the benefits of adopting a strategic approach to transboundary collaboration designed to align marine plans across different jurisdictions.

Addressing transboundary conservation challenges through marine spatial prioritization.

The Adriatic and Ionian Region is an important area for both strategic maritime development and biodiversity conservation in the European Union (EU). However, given that both EU and non-EU countries border the sea, multiple legal and regulatory frameworks operate at different scales, which can hinder the coordinated long-term sustainable development of the region. Transboundary marine spatial planning can help overcome these challenges by building consensus on planning objectives and making the trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and its influence on economically important sectors more explicit. We address this challenge by developing and testing 4 spatial prioritization strategies with the decision-support tool Marxan, which meets targets for biodiversity conservation while minimizing impacts to users. We evaluated these strategies in terms of how priority areas shift under different scales of target setting (e.g., regional vs. country level). We also examined the trade-off between cost-efficiency and how equally solutions represent countries and maritime industries (n = 14) operating in the region with the protection-equality metric. We found negligible differences in where priority conservation areas were located when we set targets for biodiversity at the regional versus country scale. Conversely, the prospective impacts on industries, when considered as costs to be minimized, were highly divergent across scenarios and biased the placement of protection toward industries located in isolation or where there were few other industries. We recommend underpinning future marine spatial planning efforts in the region through identification of areas of national significance, transboundary areas requiring cooperation between countries, and areas where impacts on maritime industries require careful consideration of the trade-off between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic objectives.

Imbalances in interaction for transboundary marine spatial planning: Insights from the Baltic Sea Region

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has evolved over many years and since its early beginnings there has been a growing urgency to develop transboundary planning. This is because the borders of marine ecosystems and the dynamics of some maritime activities, such as navigation, are not restricted to or bound by specific political and administrative borders. Cooperation across borders has been promoted by higher political levels for decades, and the implementation of cross-border consultation procedures is regulated by law. However, literature suggests that transboundary interaction is not an obvious step in the process of MSP and that today's practices have various weaknesses. This paper examines current practices and procedures of transboundary MSP interactions in the Baltic Sea Region to date. It brings together results from MSP process observations and interviews with marine planners in two recent research projects (Baltic SCOPE and BONUS BALTSPACE). Our results confirm the need for transboundary interaction and integration. The research also shows that there are differences in how MSP agencies interact with domestic and foreign stakeholders. Furthermore, formal transboundary consultations often seem to be limited to topics of the environment and health, and to the stakeholders responsible in these realms. The results include a variety of ways to overcome these challenges.

Marine Spatial Planning in the North Sea—Are National Policies and Legal Structures Compatible Enough? The Case of Norway and the Netherlands

Abstract Marine spatial planning is an important tool to achieve a more ecosystem-based governance approach to marine ecosystems. Marine ecosystems often transcend national jurisdictional boundaries, so the compatibility of national policies and legal structures are important prerequisites for transboundary marine spatial planning. This article explores marine spatial planning in the North Sea ecosystem and analyses whether national policies and legal structures in the Netherlands and Norway are compatible enough. Both countries have an extensive body of law regulating the different uses of the North Sea and have also developed integrated management approaches for ‘their’ respective parts of the North Sea. The article demonstrates that marine spatial planning in regional sea areas is complicated when national legal frameworks and governance structures and traditions are very different.

Transboundary marine spatial planning: a reflexive marine governance experiment?

ABSTRACTBecause seas and coastlines are shared between states, the formulation and implementation of marine spatial planning (MSP) should be transboundary by nature. The main argument of this paper is that MSP should be organized as a transboundary policy-making process, but this is hampered by the conceptual and institutional fragmentation MSP is facing. Based on an analysis of four transboundary planning processes in different European seas, the paper gives insight into the possibilities to develop and implement transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP). To overcome the conceptual and institutional challenges, TMSP should be developed as a reflexive governance arrangement, in which the actors involved are able to change the rules of the game and to challenge the existing (national-oriented) MSP discourses. The paper develops four forms of reflexivity (unreflectiveness; performative reflectiveness; structural reflectiveness; and reflexivity) to assess TMSP processes and to formulate conditions which are crucial to develop TMSP as a reflexive marine governance arrangement.

Evaluating conditions for transboundary Marine Spatial Planning: Challenges and opportunities on the island of Ireland

Transboundary cooperation is viewed as an essential element of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). While much of the MSP literature focuses on the need for, and benefits of, transboundary MSP, this paper explores the political and institutional factors that may facilitate the effective transition to such an approach. Drawing on transboundary planning theory and practice, key contextual factors that are likely to expedite the transition to transboundary MSP are reviewed. These include: policy convergence in neighbouring jurisdictions; prior experience of transboundary planning; and good working relations amongst key actors. Based on this review, an assessment of the conditions for transboundary MSP in the adjoining waters of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is undertaken. A number of recommendations are then advanced for transboundary MSP on the island of Ireland, including, the need to address the role of formal transboundary institutions and the lack of an agreed legal maritime boundary. The paper concludes with some commentary on the political realities of implementing transboundary MSP.