The ecosystem approach conquers global maritime spatial planning event in Riga

Not just one or two but three events on maritime spatial planning (MSP) were combined in the "Global meets regional" Maritime Spatial Planning Forum in Riga between 19 and 21 November, showing the importance that MSP is gaining in the Baltic Sea region.

The event that attracted 300 participants from over 40 countries was a grouping of the 4th International MSP Forum, the 3rd Baltic MSP Forum, and the final conference of the Pan Baltic Scope project. It focussed heavily on the ecosystem approach as well as transboundary planning between countries and frameworks.

[...]

The forum furthermore served as the final conference of the EU-funded Pan Baltic Scope project on advancing MSP in the Baltic Sea region and where HELCOM led the work on economic and social analyses, and cumulative impacts.

In the project, HELCOM also collaborated on a data sharing activity to support regional cooperation and transboundary coherence in MSP. At the forum, HELCOM presented BASEMAPS, a web-based tool showing decentralized MSP data through open standard services.

"With BASEMAPS, planners can finally access a catalogue of transnational MSP data published by official data providers," said Joni Kaitaranta, HELCOM's data manager. The tool seeks to facilitate the development of coherent plans across the Baltic Sea region.

[...]

The full press release can be found at helcom.fi

Project Pan Baltic Scope develops maritime spatial planning tools for the Baltic Sea Region. Find out more at panbalticscope.eu

HELCOM’s maritime spatial planning service can be found at basemaps.helcom.fi