Communicating Maritime Spatial Planning: The MSP Challenge approach

The MSP Challenge uses game technology and role-play to support communication and learning for Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning. Since 2011, a role-playing game, a board game and a digital interactive simulation platform have been developed. The MSP Challenge editions have been used in workshops, conferences, education, as well as for real life stakeholder engagement. The authors give an overview of the development of the MSP Challenge and reflect on the value of the approach as an engaging and ‘fun’ tool for building mutual understanding and communicating MSP

Identifying culturally significant areas for marine spatial planning

Despite the growing recognition of their importance, immaterial cultural values associated with the sea still tend to be neglected in marine spatial planning (MSP). This socio-cultural evidence gap is due to inherent difficulties in defining and eliciting cultural values, but also to difficulties in linking cultural values to specific places, thus enabling an area-based approach to management. This paper addresses three aspects that are important for including marine cultural values in MSP: Defining cultural values, identifying places of cultural importance, and establishing the relative significance of places of cultural importance. We argue that common classification schemes such as cultural ecosystem services can be a helpful starting point for identifying cultural values, but only go so far in capturing communities' cultural connections with the sea. A method is proposed for structuring a community-based narrative on cultural values and “spatialising” them for MSP purposes, using five criteria that can lead to the definition of “culturally significant areas”. A baseline of culturally significant areas is suggested as an aid to planners to pinpoint places where cultural connections to the sea are particularly strong. Throughout, we emphasise the need for participative processes

Challenges of achieving good environmental status in the Northeast Atlantic

The sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystem services is dependent on achieving and maintaining an adequate ecosystem state to prevent undue deterioration. Within the European Union, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires member states to achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS), specified in terms of 11 descriptors. We analyzed the complexity of social-ecological factors to identify common critical issues that are likely to influence the achievement of GEnS in the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) more broadly, using three case studies. A conceptual model developed using a soft systems approach highlights the complexity of social and ecological phenomena that influence, and are likely to continue to influence, the state of ecosystems in the NEA. The development of the conceptual model raised four issues that complicate the implementation of the MSFD, the majority of which arose in the Pressures and State sections of the model: variability in the system, cumulative effects, ecosystem resilience, and conflicting policy targets. The achievement of GEnS targets for the marine environment requires the recognition and negotiation of trade-offs across a broad policy landscape involving a wide variety of stakeholders in the public and private sectors. Furthermore, potential cumulative effects may introduce uncertainty, particularly in selecting appropriate management measures. There also are endogenous pressures that society cannot control. This uncertainty is even more obvious when variability within the system, e.g., climate change, is accounted for. Also, questions related to the resilience of the affected ecosystem to specific pressures must be raised, despite a lack of current knowledge. Achieving good management and reaching GEnS require multidisciplinary assessments. The soft systems approach provides one mechanism for bringing multidisciplinary information together to look at the problems in a different light

Examining the interplay between internet use disorder tendencies and well-being in relation to sofalizing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Aims: The present study investigated the potential links between Internet Use Disorder tendencies, well-being and the impact of COVID-19 on Internet usage patterns. Method: A sample of 2498 participants filled out the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; the cognitive facet of well-being) and the Sofalizing Scale which comprises the Online Displacement and Social Compensation dimensions. Participants were also asked to report the extent to which changes in Internet use occurred due to COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., reductions, no changes, increases). The present study comprised a survey study with cross-sectional character. Results: The statistical analyses demonstrated that the aforementioned variables were robustly associated with each other. In a first mediation model, the association between higher levels of Internet Use Disorder and reduced well-being was partially mediated by the two dimensions of the Sofalizing scale called Online Displacement and Social Compensation. The results of the second mediation model showed that the relationship between changes in Internet use due to COVID-19 pandemic and well-being was fully mediated by CIUS scores, suggesting that increased Internet use due to the COVID-19 pandemic increased levels of Internet Use Disorder tendencies, which in turn decreased levels of well-being. Discussion: The findings are discussed in the context of human social needs in a time of crisis, where meeting people in-person was restricted

Challenges of achieving good environmental status in the Northeast Atlantic

The sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystem services is dependent on achieving and maintaining an adequate ecosystem state to prevent undue deterioration. Within the European Union, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires member states to achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS), specified in terms of 11 descriptors. We analyzed the complexity of social-ecological factors to identify common critical issues that are likely to influence the achievement of GEnS in the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) more broadly, using three case studies. A conceptual model developed using a soft systems approach highlights the complexity of social and ecological phenomena that influence, and are likely to continue to influence, the state of ecosystems in the NEA. The development of the conceptual model raised four issues that complicate the implementation of the MSFD, the majority of which arose in the Pressures and State sections of the model: variability in the system, cumulative effects, ecosystem resilience, and conflicting policy targets. The achievement of GEnS targets for the marine environment requires the recognition and negotiation of trade-offs across a broad policy landscape involving a wide variety of stakeholders in the public and private sectors. Furthermore, potential cumulative effects may introduce uncertainty, particularly in selecting appropriate management measures. There also are endogenous pressures that society cannot control. This uncertainty is even more obvious when variability within the system, e.g., climate change, is accounted for. Also, questions related to the resilience of the affected ecosystem to specific pressures must be raised, despite a lack of current knowledge. Achieving good management and reaching GEnS require multidisciplinary assessments. The soft systems approach provides one mechanism for bringing multidisciplinary information together to look at the problems in a different light

A new future for the sea? A take on the risks associated with offshore wind farming

Global change is currently leading to a fundamental re-configuration of marine space. In the North Sea, climate change is one of the drivers that have resulted in a large proportion of North Sea space to be set aside for offshore wind farming (BMU 2007, BMWi 2008, Kannen & Burkhard 2009, Gee (in print)). Whilst there are risks associated with not pursuing the offshore wind option, the large-scale expansion of offshore wind farming itself carries a different set of risks. Some of these risks are spatial in nature, increasing pressure of use on a space that is already heavily used. Other risks are economic, ecological and social in nature, manifesting themselves at different scales in the marine environment and further afield on the mainland. Risk is a construct and a relative concept, meaning that risk perception is contingent in space and time. There is a large body of literature linking risk perception to change and uncertainty, the acceptance of new technologies and how to deal with systemic risk (e.g. Renn et al. 2007, Zwick et al. 2008). In this paper, we start from the premise that the classification of something as a risk requires the existence of something else that is `at risk', an object or entity that is valued and could be considered threatened by new developments. This `something' may be a personal and deeply held conviction or principle, but may also be the values assigned to particular elements of the environment and space. In the case of risks perceived in the context of offshore wind farming, a central question is thus what environmental values might be threatened by the large-scale expansion of offshore wind farms and whether this can be compensated for by appropriate management. Using the West coast of Schleswig-Holstein as a case study, this paper discusses three selected constructs of environmental risk posed by offshore wind farm development The first is the construction of `objective' ecological risk based on the interpretation of modelling data for selected bird species (Burkhard et al. 2010, Mendel et al. 2010). The second draws on survey results from the West coast of Schleswig-Holstein and focuses on risk perception of local coastal residents (Gee 2010). The third is the construction of risk by other sea users potentially affected by offshore wind farm development, where space is the value most at risk. We then place these different perceptions of threat into the context of the current spatial planning framework used to guide offshore wind farm development in the German North Sea. We find that zoning is limited in the kinds of risks it can reduce. For comprehensive risk management in the context of offshore wind farming, more must be done to discuss the more fundamental values associated with the sea as a space since these are instrumental drivers of local perceptions of risk