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Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning

© Roy Tennant / FreeLargePhotos.com

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the heavily developed urban landscape of the city of San Francisco abuts the ecologically sensitive estuarine areas of the San Francisco Bay. North of the Golden Gate Bridge, national and state parklands represent one quarter of Marin County’s land area. An effective marine spatial plan would assure that such ecological, economic, and social needs of the San Francisco Bay Area would be met in a balanced way.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) as a "public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in coastal and marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that are usually specified through a political process".

Between November 2007 and May 2009, UNESCO developed a guide that lays out a "Step-by-Step Approach for Marine Spatial Planning toward Ecosystem-based Management." The guide, authored by Fanny Douvere and Charles Elher, is part of the Manual and Guide Series of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and is being recognized as the authoritative source of information on CMSP and its implementation process. The proposed steps of the guide are based on real world practices with coastal and marine spatial planning from all around the globe.

Step by Step Marine Spatial Planning Implementation (9.1 MB PDF)

With a memorandum issued on June 12, 2009, President Barack Obama established an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to develop recommendations for what could be the United States’ first national policy for its oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. The Task Force has released an interim report on September 10, which was followed on December 9 by a framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning.

Download the Interim Report >>

Download the Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning >>

Visit the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force website

SeaWeb's Media Briefing on Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning and the U.S. National Ocean Policy

On March 4, 2010, SeaWeb held a background briefing for media about "The First U.S. National Ocean Policy: How Does Science Inform Policy and What Will Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Mean For The Ocean and Its Resources" at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The moderator of the event was Lori Arguelles, SeaWeb's vice president of media and policy. The speakers and their presentations (available for download) were as follows:

• Andrew Rosenberg, Ph.D., senior vice president for Science and Knowledge, Conservation International; professor of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire; and former Commission Member, U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy spoke about "Marine Spatial Planning in Theory and Practice." (1MB PowerPoint)
• Charles "Bud" Ehler, president, Ocean Visions talked about "International Experience with Marine Spatial Planning" (5.4MB PDF)
• Deerin Babb-Brott, assistant secretary ocean and coastal zone management, Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, presented information about one of the United States’ only active state marine frameworks in his talk on the "Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan" (7.5MB PowerPoint)

Download an MP3 of the briefing (82 MB MP3 file).

Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank

This oil and gas platform provides essential fish habitat next to the Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary. With appropriate safety measures in place, extractive industries could coexist with marine protected areas, fulfilling the sanctuary's integrated approach to management.