Supporting the Implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the North Atlantic Region
SIMNORAT was co-funded by the EC – DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) Call for Poposal EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3
€1.800.000 and 80% of the budget was funded by the EU
SIMNORAT focused on two key objectives:
- Supporting the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in EU Member States;
- Launching and carry out concrete and cross-border MSP initiatives between Member States.
To address these objectives the activities undertaken focused on the following issues:
- Initial assessment
- Cooperation on MSP in Western Mediterranean
- MSP process
- Methodology for a transboundary MSP
- Spatial demands and future trends
- Data and information’s requirements for MSP.
- Tools and methods supporting MSP.
- Stakeholder’s engagement
Project Results
The following outputs are available from the SIMNORAT project. A Signposting Document directs users and stakeholders towards appropriate SIMNORAT outputs and resources by providing summaries of the components and the main ndings.
Several of these outputs are described in detail in the Practices Database. These descriptions can be found using the links under Practices in the left menu.
- Initial Assessment (D1)
- Annex 1 to Initial Assessment: Marine Environment (D1)
- Annex 2 to Initial Assessment: Pressures/Impacts (D1)
- State-of-play of MSP directive implementation process - Focus on the role of the regions (D2)
- Conceptual method: major steps (D3)
- The definition and application of MSP by the OSPAR Convention (D4)
- Coordination of sectorial policies (D5)
- Land Sea Interactions and Relationships with Integrated Coastal Zone Management (D6)
- Most appropriate geographical scale for MSP at national scale (D7)
- Spatial demands and future trends for maritime sectors (D8)
- Taking Marine Protected Areas into account in the context of Maritime Spatial Planning (D9)
- Marine protected areas in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coasts - Database completion and analysis (D10)
- Analysis of Data needs and existing gaps (D11)
- Data Management Guidance Document (D12)
- Interactions between uses, between uses and environment, including cumulative impacts. Review of evaluation methods carried out in France, Spain and Portugal (D13)
- Potential approaches for stakeholder engagement on Marine Spatial Planning and outcomes of pilot testing (D14)
- Stakeholder Perception on Maritime Spatial Planning (D15)
- Bay of Biscay case study - Mapping exposure risk of marine megafauna to concomitant pressures (D16)
- Case Study Cross Border MPA Galicia Bank – Vigo and Vasco da Gama Seamounts (D17)
Project Events
A final conference was organised on 29-30 January 2019 in Brest, France A Stakeholder Conference was organised on 19 December 2018 and the event report/presentations are available online.
Project partners
SIMNORAT involved the following partners:
Aveiro University, Portugal
CEDEX – Study and Experimentation Centre, Spain
CEREMA – Expertise Centre on Risks studies, Environment, Mobility and space planning, France
CPRM – Conference of Peripherical Maritime Regions;
IEO – Oceanographic Institute (Spain);
FBA – French Biodiversity Agency
Shom – French Hydrographic Office