Towards Spatial Planning in the Marine Environment

This paper describes how the marine environment around Europe is in a severely degraded state and its capacity to fully recover is not good. The United Kingdom (UK) Government, the European Union (EU) and regional seas conventions such as the North Sea Conference have all concluded that many of the problems facing the marine environment are a consequence of the current planning and management framework. In particular, the main causes include lack of strategic planning context within which individual consenting authorities can make decisions, poor coordination between sectoral interests and a lack of forward planning. A common conclusion emerging is that a spatial planning framework for the marine environment is urgently needed. The paper describes how marine spatial planning should not be seen as something complex or radically different from terrestrial spatial planning. The key principles apply both to land and sea. However, the land based planning approach should not be blindly reproduced as it has its own inherent weaknesses that need to be addressed. In addition, there are critical differences between land and sea environments that must be taken into account. Large-scale planning and development has received in-depth consideration at a European level.