Kira Gee

• PhD
• Research Associate at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon

This paper takes stock of the impact the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive 2014/89/EU has had on developing maritime spatial planning (MSP) practice in Europe. Drawing on the practical experience of 22 Member States, it analyses how countries with varying political, planning and regional contexts, as well as varying MSP experience prior to 2014,...

Community participation and influence are vitally important for meeting the multidimensional sustainability aims of marine spatial planning (MSP) and more specifically for procedural and distributive justice. While participation has received substantial research interest, we identify a need to: 1) develop equity-based principles for coastal communi...

Marine Spatial Planning is labelled as ‘an idea whose time has come’ based on its applicability to address spatial conflicts and deliver sustainable use. Legislation such as the EU MSP Directive 2014/89/EU and the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 requires that neighbouring marine spatial plans are coherent and coordinated to address cross-bord...

Identifying key sites of marine biodiversity value and implementing the required practical spatial management measures is critical for safeguarding marine biodiversity and maintaining essential ecological processes, especially in the face of accelerating global change and expanding ocean economies. Delineating Ecologically or Biologically Significa...

This paper examines the concept of maritime multi-use as a territorial/SPATIAL governance instrument for the enhancement of sustainable development in five EU sea basins. Multi-use (MU) is expected to enhance the productivity of blue economy sectors, as well as deliver additional socio-economic benefits related to the environmental and social dimen...

Citation: Przedrzymirska, J.; Zaucha, J.; Calado, H.; Lukic, I.; Bocci, M.; Ramieri, E.; Varona, M.C.; Barbanti, A.; Depellegrin, D.; de Sousa Vergílio, M.; et al. Multi-Use of the Sea as a Sustainable Development Instrument in Five EU Sea Basins. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8159. https://doi.

A number of commentators have argued that up until now marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) research and practice have been dominated by blue economy and environmental concerns and have tended to neglect what might be regarded as social sustainability concerns. To gain more insight into the character and extent of such a gap, as well as how to ad...

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has rapidly become the most widely used integrated, place-based management approach in the marine environment. Monitoring and evaluation of MSP is key to inform best practices, adaptive management and plan iteration. While standardised evaluation frameworks cannot be readily applied, accounting for evaluation essential...

The poster demonstrates how to combine Bow-Ties and BBN methodology to inform environmental decision-making in coastal areas. The poster is part of the the international research project Land2Sea, where the focus is how to do integrated modelling of the consequences of terrestrial activities and climate change for aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem...

The presentation summarises findings regarding stakeholder involvement in Maritime Spatial Planning in the Baltic Sea Region. The presentation is based on the Handbook: Process, Methods and Tools for Stakeholder Involvement in Maritime Spatial Planning.

The territorial waters and EEZ of Namibia are part of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem in the South-East Atlantic. Growing demands and conflicts emerge although the area is not as intensely used as marine areas elsewhere. Namibia has chosen Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) as an integrated approach to facilitate sustainable ocean developmen...

The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) in the south-east Atlantic covers the territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ’s) of Angola and Namibia and partly of South Africa. Increasing demands, user-user and user-environment conflicts occur throughout the area. The three countries, which are parties to the Benguela Current Con...

The report assesses digital tools for decision support and stakeholder involvement in Maritime Spatial Planning, developed within the BONUS BASMATI project. The report addresses three main questions: 1) What does the tool seek to achieve, the main user and application of the tool? 2) What are the lessons learned from tool development and testing so...

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has been heralded as the key means of achieving a more integrated approach to marine use across sectors and spatial scales. Achieving greater integration and coherence in MSP governance arrangements is seen as a way to resolve current problems of marine governance (such as fragmentation) and address future resource dem...

This article elaborates a conceptual framework to examine social sustainability in marine spatial planning (MSP). Based on a critical literature review of key texts on social sustainability in MSP and the broader sustainable development literature we show the need to elaborate a cogent and comprehensive approach for the analysis and pursuit of soci...

The handbook addresses Maritime Spatial Planning. It provides practitioners with a framework for systematically thinking about Stakeholder Involvement in the MSP process. The ideas and approaches to stakeholder involvement outlined are based on first-hand experiences from planners in the Baltic Sea Region and cover the whole of the MSP policy cycle...

Over recent years the sea has experienced re-interpretation as marine space, or more specifically as marine spatial planning (MSP) space. This article uses the concept of place as a contrasting interpretation to space, referring to place-making as a metaphor for the various ways in which meaning is created in the sea. As expressions of an intimate...

Sustainability in the provision of ecosystem services requires understanding of the vulnerability of social-ecological systems (SES) to tipping points (TPs). Assessing SES vulnerability to abrupt ecosystem state changes remains challenging, however, because frameworks do not operationally link ecological, socio-economic and cultural elements of the...

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 id...

The role of tools and approaches is currently much debated in maritime spatial planning (MSP). Past evaluation has mainly concentrated on decision support tools and the tangible outputs these can provide for MSP, but little attention has so far been been given to the soft or indirect benefits tool use can have in MSP. This paper assesses the potent...

This chapter introduces marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) from the perspective of research and practice. After providing some basic definitions and terminology, it shows how MSP has developed since its inception, ending with a description of its current status of adoption around the world. It also sets out how MSP has been received in various...

Presently, institutional systems and practices in marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) are evolving rapidly. At the same time, cross-border learning and exchange are still at an early stage. This chapter is based on the need to assess and compare participation processes across cases and countries and foster learning to develop public participatio...

Oceans have held varying places in the imagination of societies, always linked to particular cultures and shifting in line with predominant world views and developing socio-economic and technological capacities. This chapter presents three Western ways of looking at the ocean. Each emerged at a particular period, but all continue to shape today’s c...

The EU MSP Directive is an example of a so-called new generation directive, which gives Member States room for adaptation to national contexts. The main objective in this article is to identify and analyse potential obstacles to effective and efficient planning caused by the diversity among national MSP frameworks that the Directive's broad regulat...

This open access book is the first comprehensive overview of maritime or marine spatial planning. Situated at the intersection between theory and practice, the volume draws together several strands of interdisciplinary research, reflecting on the history of MSP as well as examining current practice and looking towards the future. The authors and co...

Despite the increasing attention given to marine spatial planning and the widely acknowledged need for transnational policy coordination, regional coherence has not yet improved a great deal in the Baltic Sea region. Therefore, the main objectives in this article are: (a) to map existing governance structures at all levels that influence how domest...

Around the globe, increasing human activities in coastal and offshore waters have created complex conflicts between different sectors competing for space and between the use and conservation of ocean resources. Like other users, aquaculture proponents evaluate potential offshore sites based primarily on their biological suitability, technical feasi...

The MSP Data Study, undertaken on behalf of DG MARE between February and December 2016, presents an overview of what data and knowledge are needed by Member States for MSP decision making, taking into account different scales and different points in the MSP cycle. It examines current and future MSP data and knowledge issues from various perspective...

The European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires the Good Environmental Status of marine environments in Europe's regional seas; yet, maritime activities, including sources of marine degradation, are diversifying and intensifying in an increasingly globalized world. Marine spatial planning is emerging as a tool for rationalizing comp...

In this paper we focus on systemic delays in the Baltic Sea that cause the problem of eutrophication to persist. These problems are demonstrated in our study by addressing three types of delays: (1) decision delay: the time it takes for an idea or perceived need to be launched as a policy; (2) implementation delay: the time from the launch of a pol...

This Good Practice Guide is the outcome of a project co-funded by the European Commission (DG Mare) called Transboundary Planning in the European Atlantic (TPEA), which ran from December 2012 to May 2014. The aim of the project was to demonstrate approaches to transboundary maritime spatial planning (MSP) in the European Atlantic region. This is on...

In diesem Beitrag wird die Verarbeitung von Klimarisiken und die daraus abgeleiteten Maßnahmen zur Anpassung in zwei Küstengemeinden an der deutschen Ostsee erläutert. Schwerpunkte der Betrachtung sind die sozial-kulturell, ökologisch und ökonomisch bedingten Beweggründe, die in den Gemeinden Timmendorfer Strand und Ummanz zu einer unterschiedliche...

This publication summarises the experiences and lessons from the BaltSeaPlan project (2009-2012, www.baltseaplan.eu). It covers all project activities such as methods applied, problems encountered, outputs achieved and future actions needed to further develop MSP.

Increasingly changing patterns of human sea and sea floor use originate in political, economic and societal developments often motivated by the process of transition towards a green economy. Offshore wind farming has turned into a major agent of change with a set of expected cumulative ecological impacts. Coastal and shelf seas become contested, bu...

Offshore wind farming is a contentious new form of sea use and a prominent driver of change across Europe. Drawing on the results of the research program Zukunft Kuste - Coastal Futures, this contribution considers the resilience of the social-ecological system to the introduction of offshore wind farming in a northern German case study region. We...

All over the world, efforts are being made to preserve landscapes facing fundamental change as a consequence of widespread agricultural intensification, land abandonment and urbanisation. The 'cultural landscape' and 'resilience' approaches have, until now, largely been viewed as distinct methods for understanding the effects of these dynamics and...

Emerging systemic risks are currently widely discussed as a new type of risk in the modern world. Developed to take account of the 'increasing complexity' (Renn & Keil 2008) and the connectedness of social, ecological and economic systems, the concept is used here as a context for discussing selected results obtained in the research project Zukunft...

Although the concept of ecosystem services has drawn a prolific amount of recent research, little work has been done on the links between marine ecosystem services and coastal human well-being at a regional scale. Key questions in this context are that of appropriate categories for assessing human well-being and how to link different determinants o...

Coastal and marine areas experience physical and ecological as well as social and economic change, caused by pressure from climate change and globalization related processes. This change may include changes in species composition, hydrodynamic and morphological patterns, but also new patterns of land and sea use, all together translating into chall...

Although frequently referred to in the literature, the concept of cultural ecosystem services (CES) has so far been limited in its application. Difficulties arise when specifying the nature of intangible values, but more significantly when it comes to relating intangible values to ecosystem functions. After setting out some conceptual issues, this...

In Germany, the first permits have now been issued for the construction of large-scale offshore wind farms in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This paper focuses on perceptions of the local seascape and the role of aesthetic seascape qualities in shaping local attitudes to offshore wind farming. Based on a survey of local residents in the...

At present, the (re)discovery of the sea as an economic space exposes shortcomings with respect to the use of the marine environment. Offshore wind farming is a case in point that highlights shortcomings with respect to marine spatial planning. Economic interests need to be contrasted with the public perception of coast and sea and visions for thei...

Driven by a range of global developments, marine and coastal areas are faced with profound change. In Germany, the emergence of offshore wind farms is a new permanent large-scale activity which is much debated as a symbol for the increasing 'industrialisation' of coastal and marine waters.Within the research project 'Zukunft Küste - Coastal Futures...

Rhetorically at least, environmental policy in the European Union has taken a shift towards more comprehensive, participative, and co-operative forms of governance. Examples are the 2002 Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and the 2000 Water Framework Directive (WFD). Designed to resolve specific environmental problems, they...

Germany is currently in the process of developing ICZM within its federal political framework and given institutional structures. This includes spatial planning for marine areas as one of the key instru-ments to reduce existing conflicts related to competing human activities in its coastal and marine areas. Based on assessing the current ICZM activ...

Driven by a range of developments, German marine and coastal areas are facing profound change. Of particular importance is the rapid expansion of the offshore sector, which is characterised by the emergence of new permanent large-scale uses, the intensification of land-sea interactions and also new conflicts of use. In Germany, these developments h...

Using the German North Sea coast and large scale development plans for offshore wind farms as examples for changing use patterns, the article describes the scenario approach used in the BMBF funded research project "Zukunft Kueste – Coastal Futures" as a tool for an integrated assessment of potential coastal developments. The approach examines a ra...