Project Status - Active
Start Year: 2009
End Year: 2013
Funding Body: EU FP7 Environment (including Climate Change)

Geographic Area: Europe
Local Study Area: 

Project Co-Ordinator: Luk Van Hoof, IMARES
CMRC Contact: Gerry Sutton

Website: http://www.mesma.org/

Abstract

The MESMA project focuses on marine spatial planning and aims to produce integrated management tools (concepts, models and guidelines) for monitoring, evaluation and implementation of Spatially Managed Areas (SMAs). The project results will support integrated management plans for designated or proposed sites with assessment methods based on European collaboration.

The main tasks in the project are information analysis, the development of a generic framework, the testing and evaluation of this framework through case-studies and the development of a toolbox. A significant proportion of the effort will be centred on the case studies within five geographical regions: the North Sea, Baltic, Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Black Sea. This approach makes it possible to compare pressures on an inter-regional level (e.g. Offshore wind farms in the North Sea, Black Sea and Baltic), or a multi-pressure level for a specific region (e.g. SMA in Fishing, Wind-energy, Geo-hazards and Tourism in the Black Sea).

MESMA will supply innovative methods and integrated strategies for governments, local authorities, stakeholders, and other managerial bodies for planning and decision making at different local, national, and European scales, for sustainable development of European seas and coastal areas. This will comprise an easy accessible data system, containing information on the distribution of marine habitats and species, economic values, and human uses, in order to support dialogue between politicians, stakeholders and the public in general. The project contributes to the design and implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy, the Thematic Strategy for Marine Protection and the recently endorsed Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The Directive aims to achieve good environmental status of the EU's marine waters by 2021 and to protect the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. MESMA will provide a firm basis for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Directive and related policies.

CMRC is leading a work package regarding the development and deployment of GIS infrastructure and standards for the storage and delivery of spatio-temporal data to support the monitoring and evaluation of SMAs