Andrej Abramic

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | ULPGC · EcoAqua University Institute

Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) has received increasing attention from policy-makers around the world as an ecosystem-based approach to the waters under the jurisdiction of coastal states, with the aim of enhancing socioeconomic development while promoting environmental protection and conservation. However, this planning process requires abundant a...

Background This study performs an exploratory analysis of current-future sustainability challenges for ocean planning for the regional seas of Catalonia located in the Western Mediterranean (Spain). Methods To address the challenges we develop an Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP)-oriented geodatabase of maritime activities and deploy three spatial m...

This document reports the results of a survey promoted by the Technical Expert Group (TEG) on Data for MSP to gather information on how the national MSP processes have taken into account the national MSFD implementation and, specifically, the dataset collected and produced under MSFD. The results of the survey indicate a medium level of coherence (...

The global economy is increasingly focusing on the Oceans to meet its needs, for which maritime spatial planning is being fostered to promote this is done sustainably. Thus, assessing the current state and future development trends of the maritime sectors is key to evaluating the performance of the planning process. This is the aim of this study, i...

This document presents the conceptual framework proposed to be applied to identify and structure the data necessary for the development of maritime spatial plans. The MSP data framework provides the structure to organise input spatial information and data that needs to be considered within the full MSP process. The required input data has been orga...

Understanding the multiple benefits (i.e. Ecosystem Services, ES) that marine habitats provide to society is key for adequate decision-making that maintains our well-being in the long-term. The main objective of this research was to map and assess, in the context of marine spatial planning, the ES supply of shallow and deep-sea habitats in the Cana...

The expected increase in the offshore wind farm (OWF) developments to meet global decarbonisation targets is raising concerns in the scientific community about the ecological health of the marine environment. The present contribution has conducted an extensive literature review on the environmental effects and changes that the OWF can pose on the G...

Dentro de la transición energética hacia fuentes renovables, la energía eólica marítima se presenta como una importante alternativa por lo que identificar las áreas marinas con mayor potencial para su desarrollo es crucial. Para ello, hemos aplicado una metodología a lo largo de 1.583 km de costa y un área marina de más de 50.000 Km2 en las Islas C...

During the process of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), the collection of the necessary data to determine the current state of the areas to be managed is the basis for the application of scientific methodologies that provide the appropriate technical support. Nowadays, with the Big Data booming, where there is a lot of information available on the int...

Increasingly, oceans and seas are considered for their potential as economic drivers and a source of employment, wealth and natural resources that promote the so-called “blue growth”. However, understanding the distribution and synergistic effect of the pressures derived from human activities and how these can impact altering ecosystems is a fundam...

Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 23 July 2014 and, in the case of Spain its transposition through Royal Decree 367/2017, of 8 April 2017, establish the legal framework for marine management plans. These plans will determine the spatial and temporal distribution of the corresponding activities and uses, existing...

International Guide on Marine/ Maritime Spatial Planning

The aim of this document is to present existing developments and to propose a solution for sharing maritime spatial plans in common formats that enable the preparation of a harmonized pan-European MSP map.

In this study, we define a novel methodological approach for introducing Offshore Wind Energy (OWE) facilities into sea space, determining the most suitable locations with regard to the five clusters: oceanographic potential; environmental sensibility; restrictions related to marine conservation; Land–Sea interactions; and avoiding potential confli...

DG MARE and EASME, with the support from the MSP Assistance Mechanism, formalized the establishment of the Technical Expert Group (TEG) on MSP data, to agree on and propose common standards in terms of MSP-related data collection, and to support the delivery of harmonized and interoperable geospatial maps of national MSPs. As a first step, two “rea...

Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) for sustainable ocean governance requires a range of knowledge and data from different sectors and the environment to ensure plans are inclusive and robust, yet flexible enough to incorporate changes in ecosystems and socio-economic drivers. Determining the existing and possible future conditions in the marine...

The relationship between the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD) and the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) process has been analyzed to understand which is the dominant process or where there is an overlap. In this contribution, we used the case study of the three archipelagos: Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, included in the...

Macaronesian Maritime Spatial Planning (MarSP) project was a perfect opportunity to finalize conceptual MSP INSPIRE data model development and, what is more important, to test developed data model and apply it on the real use cases, developed in the Macaronesia MSP process. During the 2nd MarSP technical workshop – capacity building, held in March...

The main challenge of PLASMAR Project is addressing the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive 2014/89/EU (MSPD) within the present framework of emerging maritime activities linked to Blue Growth development and within the limits of ecosystem-based management. The main goal is to provide a pilot zoning, for the Exclusive Economic...

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 sta...

Following European environmental legislation framework (MSFD/GES), the PLASMAR project aims to identify relevant environmental issues for each maritime activity for Blue Growth development. Following this approach, PLASMAR project expects to demonstrate how Marine Spatial Planning is linked to the ecosystem approach, thus contributing to promote Bl...

This study lists the requirements of the EU environmental directives that apply on marine and coastal areas and presents the current state of play of the implementation, including the actions that have been applied for the Canary Islands. It is necessary to understand what is already done due the implementation of the environmental policies, so it...

Environmental planning cycles are defined with clear deadlines for the implementation of the measures required by legal instruments and which are related to reporting obligations. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD) is an environmental planning legislation, formally adopted by European Union in 2008. It is an European legal in...

This paper documents how to apply INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC principles for efficient implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD). It provides an overview of the different INSPIRE components, explains the relationship between the MSFD requirements and improves the understanding of distributed data management. The MS...

This report is the deliverable of PLASMAR Project activity 211a: Finding the balance of Blue Growth Sustainable Development within Ecosystem Approach, within which partners analysed the presence, situation and main forecasted trends of the maritime sectors present in the archipelagos of Madeira, Azores and Canaries. This first project activity inte...

Access to high quality data is essential in order to better understand the environmental and health impact of noise in an increasingly urbanised world. This paper analyses how recent developments of spatial data infrastructures in Europe can significantly improve the utilization of data and streamline reporting on a pan-European scale. The Infrastr...

Maritime Spatial Planning, Ecosystem Approach and Supporting Information Systems (MaPSIS) Conference conclusions. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2017

Background: This report is meant to help stakeholders of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD) understanding how the INSPIRE data standards can be best used to document and share data coming from the MSFD monitoring programmes. The report focuses on the semantics (the meaning) of data. The report is intended for people involved...

The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) are two initiatives of the European Union (EU) where closer collaboration would realise considerable benefits to all communities who use or make decisions based on marine data. Both initiatives have long development timeline...

This report is meant to help stakeholders of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD) to understand how the obligations of the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC relate to the data and information management aspects of the MSFD. It provides an overview of the different INSPIRE components, explains the relationship between the MSFD require...

Environmental noise is increasingly recognized as an issue of concern. Assessing the exposure of EU citizens to noise requires substantial volumes of data. That is why there is a system, put in place with the aim of monitoring the state of environmental noise throughout the European Union. The Directive on the Assessment and Management of Environme...

Environmental monitoring in the scope of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) is usually expensive and requires considerable human effort. In this study, we analyzed data obtained by a WFD coastal waters monitoring network over a three-year period (35 campaigns), with the aim to ascertain is it possible to increase the monitoring efficien...

Report on the status of INSPIRE in the Balkan countries The INSPIRE Directive requires actions from the EU Member States and also has direct implications for the countries neighbouring the EU, regardless of whether or not they are candidate countries. Preconditions for EU membership, to which all the Western Balkan (WB) countries currently aspire,...

The Directive 2007/2/EC of the EU adopted in 2007 aims at establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) for environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.. It cover spatial data sets related to one or more of the 34 themes listed in the INSPIRE annexes. Hyd...

2007 godine donesena je INSPIRE Direktiva Europske unije 2007/2/EC koja ima za cilj uspostavu Europske infrastrukture prostornih podataka u svrhu podrške politikama okoliša. Prostorni podaci obuhvaćeni INSPIRE-om definirani su u tri priloga Direktive kao 34 teme prostornih podataka. Tema hidrografija obuhvaća 4 aplikacijske sheme koje definiraju mo...