Sea in Sight ... Visions on Marine Spatial Planning in the Belgian Part of the North Sea

Please click here for the full presentation or read on for a summary of the talk.

The Firth of Clyde Forum was delighted to welcome An Vanhulle from the University of Gent in Belgium to give a presentation on the GAUFRE project ‘Towards a spatial plan for sustainable management of the North Sea’ and to share her experiences of Marine Spatial Planning in the Belgian part of the North Sea.

The sea plays a major role in the organisation and development of coastal and delta areas. Yet we continue planning with our back towards the sea.

Important economic, social and ecological changes however, make it necessary for the sea to be taken into account when planning. The demand for marine space by recent activities is increasing (wind parks, nature reserves at sea, the European fisheries policy etc). Moreover, reports about climate change and rise of the seas force us to reflect about how the sea impacts on our development.

The North Sea gives the impression of being immense, with an enormous potential for new uses. Nevertheless, the current demand for space shows that the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) already has a high exploitation rate. The current need for space at sea is larger than generally thought. The sum of all potential demand for space at sea is around 2.6 times larger than the available space (if space allocations are based on current legislation and if this space would actually be completely used).

Future requirements for space will continue to increase. It is important to note that the need for space changes in two directions. The fixed activities (such as wind energy, cables and pipelines, coastal defence, port structures, aquaculture and land extension) are gaining importance (and spatial occupation) in comparison with the mobile uses at sea. The mobile uses (such as fisheries, shipping, water recreation, sand and gravel extraction and dredging activities) do not increase their spatial occupation, but rather intensify their action in the zones they already occupy.

Space within the North Sea is limited and in most cases the use of space for one type of use restricts possibilities for other types of uses. In simple terms, there is not enough space within the BPNS to accommodate all the claims for space. Accordingly, structuring and planning is required for the BPNS and choices will have to be made about space allocation.

It is important to acknowledge the sea’s specific characteristics. The BPNS cannot just be seen as an extension of the land. The sea has a unique and typical structure and dynamics. The sea therefore demands a specific vision, a ‘sea-oriented planning’.

The methodology used for this ‘sea-oriented planning’ in the GAUFRE project is that of ‘structural planning’. In structural planning space is seen as an area of structural unity, in which spatial decisions need to be balanced against each other. In contrast with so-called 'end situation planning', structural planning does not determine what can and cannot be done on every single piece of space. The structural plan is rather a global and strategic vision on the desired spatial development of a particular area, a framework for sustainable spatial content represented by structural maps rather than detailed final planning maps. Another essential difference with end situation planning is that a structural plan needs to be refined and updated every so many years so as to react to societal changes. In other words, flexibility is a major starting point of structural planning: after all, space is never 'finished'!

The aim of the GAUFRE project was to outline concrete future possibilities for the BPNS. The future prospectives were drawn in order to inspire policymakers and end users to envisage alternative ways in which the BPNS might be spatially managed in the future.

A starting point for the development of a vision for the BPNS is the determination of the key values of the North Sea. Every activity in the BPNS can be correlated to these three key issues and every future intervention will be tested towards the key values. The three key values are: the value of well-being, ecological and landscape value, and economic value.

An went on to describe the GAUFRE project’s six different scenarios that were developed based on the three key values of well-being, ecological and landscape value, and economic value. She explained that three of the scenarios strongly focused on one of the key values, and that the other three scenarios were based on crossovers between two of the key values. Each scenario was elaborated to produce relatively extreme and conflicting results, with the extreme scenarios providing an opportunity to consider a larger and less obvious picture.

An concluded by explaining that the scenarios revealed new possibilities and were designed to encourage the development of a policy that not only reflects present trends, but also anticipates future movements within the North Sea environment.

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