Geldof, C.

Janssens, N.

Spatial Planners

Open Marine Archive

84 
 
MANAGING THE SEA, A VISION OF THE FUTURE. THE ‘FUTURE 
COMMONS 2070’ MAP 
*Charlotte Geldof1 and Nel Janssens2, spatial planners 
1 Magnificentsurroundings.org, think-tank on socio-spatial questions 
 Tentoonstellingslaan 143, 9000 Gent,    Belgium 
 E-mail: info@magnificentsurroundings.org 
2 Faculty of Architecture.Sint-Lucas, 
University of Leuven, Paleizenstraat 65, 1030 Brussels, Belgium 
E-mail: nel.janssens@architectuur.sintlucas.wenk.be 
 
 
 extract from ‘Future Commons 2070’, see www.magnificentsurroundings.org 
 
We present the conference audience ‘The Future Commons 2070’ map, a design-based 
research project that addresses critical vision forming and synthetic imagination 
concerning the development of maritime spatial planning and ICZM on the Southern part 
of the North Sea. The map proposes a global vision of the sea and coastal area for and 
adjacent to the Belgian part of the North Sea, that outlines the key elements that develop 
the area into a Magnificent Surroundings+. In the concept of Magnificent Surroundings+ 
the sea is considered to become a common in 2070 and a synthesis is created between 
infrastructure and transport, energy production and ecological concerns in order to 
support this. 
This project is part of the ‘Magnificent Surroundings # North Sea and coastal area’ 
research project and its purpose is to stimulate the awareness that the sea has this 
unique value to society: common interest. Everybody has the right to use the sea, to enjoy 
its benefits. Just like forests, water and the atmosphere, the sea can be considered as a 
‘common-pool resource’, a natural common resource, quasi-free for anybody to enjoy. 
Although this seems evident, it cannot be taken for granted because natural common-
pool resources are not inexhaustible, and hence, sensitive to problems like pollution, 
wastage and overuse. This is why the sea needs to be properly managed from a longterm 
perspective as a valuable future-orientated common good. 
Oceans and seas are an immeasurable space, differing from the land in many respects, 
yet like all open space on earth, this immense area is increasingly under pressure. The 
increasing rate of land wastage is just one of the factors that will cause the demand to 
make open sea-space available for development ever more urgent. Throughout the 
centuries, maritime law has kept on connecting ever-larger maritime areas with their 
adjacent coastal states, and this is an ongoing trend. At the moment, a significant part of 
the surface of oceans and seas on earth is situated within the sovereignty of a coastal 
state (e.g. EEZ). However, the larger part of oceans and seas (e.g. ‘international waters’ or 
‘high seas’) are not (yet) subjected to states' sovereignty, and are (to put it simply) 
intended for collective use; this part can be defined as a collective space on a worldwide 
scale. However, a collective status that has not been allocated or recognized explicitly is 
all too often demoted to the vulnerable status of ‘freely available’… Clearly, maritime 
spatial planning is on the rise worldwide. Policy concerning this matter is evolving 
steadily. While Europe is setting out the basic outlines for its future marine and maritime 
policy options, project developers are already proposing their first initiatives. 
85 
 
In order to safeguard its status of common good the sea deserves due care and therefore, 
there is a need for a global vision of how to address this meta-question of commonality in 
maritime spatial planning. ‘Planning’ for the most part implicates accepting development, 
which, in terms of spatial use, translates as ‘appropriation of extra space’. But Europe’s 
intention to “guarantee economic growth in a climate of sustainable development” sounds 
a lot like its credo for planning on land, whereas planning and designing for marine areas 
is in fact a very different, location-time-specific matter. If we are prepared to validate this 
specificity, it seems more than probable that for maritime spatial planning, different 
planning principles from those for landlocked projects will be required. 
The actual planning process needs to be backed up by existing fundamental scientific 
research, but it also requires global critical vision-defining research, in which an 
important role is reserved for design-based or projective research. In this type of research 
the default mode of thinking is imagineering and projectivity. Projectivity and 
imagineering , resulting in prefigurations, render prospective alternatives subject to 
discussion and anticipative reflection, also called proflection. Proflection enables 
reflecting on future possibilities and desirability, and in that sense, differs from scientific 
prediction which is rather reflecting on probablities. Global critical vision-defining 
research based on designerly thinking is orientated to goal-setting (what do we want?) 
and thus provides a necessary complement to the (natural) sciences. Framed within this 
particular research context, The Future Commons 2070 prefigures the development of 
the Belgian part of the North Sea and coastal area into a commons-inspired Magnificent 
Surrounding+ and proposes policy and planning principles to achieve this. 
The ‘Future Commons’ map shows what may, by 2070, have become a new European 
Union ‘Southern North Sea’ Zone, namely a EU-Maritime Commons (EU-MC) Zone. Starting 
from the conviction that a relation exists between overexploitation of natural resources 
and the current use and governance of oceans and seas, we propose that the governance 
of all EEZ on a global scale should be reconsidered with this reflection in mind. We are 
proposing 2070 as the target year by which EEZ will convert into “maritime commons”. In 
accordance with this future vision, these marine commons will be administered with a 
view to putting the common good at the top of the agenda, meticulously striving for a 
more balanced use of natural resources and respect for the dynamics and evolution of 
nature and species in oceans and seas. This vision for a new EU-Maritime Commons Zone 
was generated by design-based research and as a result this map features an absolute 
first: a specific example of simultaneous spatial planning for the marine area off the coast 
and the adjacent inland coastal zone area. It proposes to bring the former EEZ, including 
the ‘contiguous zone’, under management of the European Union (or a similar supra-
national power) and consequently to divide it into larger, supra-national natural-
jurisdictional parts, based on its constituent ecosystems. Transcending the existing state 
structure will allow the implementation of an international, coherent land, water and seas 
policy. Within a coordinating European policy framework, the territorial zone remains to 
be administered regionally. The ‘Future Commons 2070’ project advocates conservation 
of the sea as a common and recognition of its growing importance, strongly regulated by 
the European Union. Securing the sea as a common good guarantees consolidation of its 
social, economic, environmental and spatial significance in a dynamic whole. In addition, 
establishing additional commons on land - inland extensions of the sea - will create 
opportunities and favourable conditions for managing the effects of climate change in 
coastal zones. With this exploration of an updated concept of commons, the present 
project intends to fuel the ethical debate on maritime spatial planning, starting from a 
basic socio-ecologically inspired concern. 
  


Managing the sea, a vision of the future. The ‘Future Commons 2070’ map

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