Newsletter 3 October 2016

ADRIPLAN: Planning the Sea

The ADRIPLAN – Project: ADRiatic Ionian maritime spatial PLANning (2013-2015; Budget 1.250.000€) is a project funded by the European Commission – DG MARE under the call (MARE/2012/25) on the theme "Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the Mediterranean sea and/or the Black sea". The focus of the proposal is the Adriatic-Ionian Region, as outlined by the recent EU strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR). The ADRIPLAN project was implemented by 17 Partners from 4 countries of the Adriatic - Ionian Macroregion (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece): 8 Scientific Partners and 9 Institutional Partners (inner circle), including 17 Observers from EU and non-EU states are also contributing to the project.

The aim of the project is to improve knowledge and develop practical experience in the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning. The study area is the Adriatic-Ionian Macroregion considered as a whole and a zoom on two focus areas: the Northern Adriatic Sea and the Southern Adriatic- Northern Ionian Sea. The general framework is the Integrated Maritime Policy, based on the eco-systemic approach and on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC). For more information visit www.adriplan.eu!

ADRIPLAN collaborates with other projects to integrate and make data available from their portals. The creation and maintenance of this network of collaborations allows the capitalization of existing multiple efforts and improves the availability of spatial dataset for users interested in MSP-related information.

WHAT IS THE ADRIPLAN DATA PORTAL?

The ADRIPLAN Data Portal is an integrated platform which aims to support the MSP process in the Adriatic-Ionian region. The portal is developed on GeoNode, an open source Geospatial Content Management System that allows users to share geospatial datasets and maps. The portal includes about 150 layers published by governmental and research organizations, public data providers, european and international projects and by other users. The following layer categories can be accessed through the portal:

• Coastal defence and sand extraction
• Energy
• Environmental protection
• Environment and ecosytems
• Fisheries and Aquaculture
• Maritime transport and tourism
• Miscellanea

FEATURES & TOOLS

Don't miss our video tutorials on how to use ADRIPLAN Data Portal!

• How to register to the portal as a new user?
• How to explore ADRIPLAN data layers & maps?

A short user guideline to the ADRIPLAN Data Portal.

Tools4MSP

Tools4MSP are based on a geopython library designed for spatial analysis of interactions between different sea uses, pressures and potential cumulative impact of marine and coastal activities on the marine environment. The tool can be deployed to any research area around the globe and is extendable for scenario analysis, sea use based analysis (e.g. maritime traffic, energy, aquaculture, etc.), socio-economic assessments and application in participatory planning processes. The recently implemented GeoNode-Tools4MSP plugin allows users to generate their impact scenarios by selecting analysis area, data layers involved (human activities and environmental components) and grid cell analysis Menegon et al., 2016.

Currently Tools4MSP consists of two tools, which are now available as case studies:

1. Case study: The Cumulative Impact (CI) assessment. In the last decade cumulative impact (CI) analysis has become an essential tool for the geospatial identification of highly impacted environmental components by marine anthropogenic uses. Since the application of Halpern’s cumulative impact analysis on global scale in 2008, several studies around the world have been investigating CI patterns, such as in the Mediterranean Sea (Micheli et al., 2013), Baltic Sea (Korpinen et al., 2012) or North Sea (Andersen et al., 2013). In line with these international assessments, a major output of the ADRIPLAN Project was the development of the CI assessment tool as decision support for the MSP process in the Adriatic-Ionian Region through an ecosystem based apporach (EBA). The CI assessment is a geospatial tool for the analysis of impacts from maritime and coastal activities on the marine environment that can be used for the development of CI maps, sea use overlay analysis maps and the visualization of statistical results. The method is under peer review in Gissi et al., 2016 (forthcoming).
2. Case study: COEXIST - sea use conflict analysis. The tool is based on a methodology developed for the [FP7 COEXIST Project] (http://www.coexistproject.eu/) and can be used for the following tasks: overlay analysis of sea uses, calculation of direct spatial conflict scores, development of current and future sea use scenarios and visualization of statistical results.

Interested to use Tools4MSP? Start here to configure your case study and run the tools.

LATEST DATA UPDATES

After the conclusion of the ADRIPLAN Project, the Tools4MSP - Team has intensively worked on the improvement of the portal, in terms of datasets availability and metadata consistency. This work is still in progress.
Currently we would like to present you our latest data updates on Environmental protection.

• NATURA 2000
• Ramsar Sites
• Potential seabirds sites in the Adriatic
• SPAMI - Special Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance
• EBSA - Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas
• CCH - Cetacean Critical Habitats
• National Marine Protected areas
• FRAs - Fishering Restricted Areas

ADRIPLAN Documentation

Want to know more on MSP in the Adriatic-Ionian Region?

• “ADRIPLAN: Developing a maritime spatial plan for the Adriatic-Ionian Region"
• “ADRIPLAN: Conclusions & Recommendations: A short manual for MSP implementation in the Adriatic-Ionian Region".

RECENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the date! Follow the activities of the ADRIPLAN Data Portal - Team.

European Ecosystem Services (EU-ES) 2016 Conference | Helping nature to help us, University of Antwerp, Belgium, 19-23 September 2016. Presentation title (Biome Sessions B5): "How to inform Maritime Spatial Planning from an ecosystem services approach? Challenges from the case of the Adriatic Ionian Region." (Gissi et al., 2016).

Mediterranean Coast Day 2016, Barcelona, Spain, 27 September 2016. It will be co-organised by PAP/RAC and SCP/RAC in Barcelona, at the premises of Sant Pau Art Knowledge Centre.

ADRIATIC+ Project (Sharing Marine and Coastal cross management experiences in the Adriatic basin), IPA Adriatic CBC Programme (2007-2013) , Vedi Losinj, Croatia, 5-9 September 2016. Workshop on The role of Marxan in multi-objective Marine Spatial Planning: Building capacity to ADRIATIC+. Presentation Sarretta et al., 2016. "From Data to Wisdom: Informing MSP and EUSAIR Implementation in the Adriatic Ionian Region."

H2020 MUSES Project (Multi-Use in European Seas, Kick-off Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, November.

REGISTER TO THE ADRIPLAN DATA PORTAL

Registration can be done here.

Registered user will benefit from the Data Portal's full functionalities:

• Creation and download of customized maps.
• Run sea use scenarios on regional and macroregion level using Tools4MSP case studies.

Don't forget to follow us on twitter Tools4MSP@Twitter.

IMPRESSUM

The Newsletter is published by

Tools4MSP - Team
National Research Council -
Institute of Marine Sciences(CNR-ISMAR)
Arsenale - Tesa 104, Castello 2737/F,
30122 Venice, Italy
www.ismar.cnr.it

For more information: tools4msp[at]ismar.cnr.it