The coming era for the blue and green economy will be shaped by humanity’s pressing need for sustainable energy and food, but any industrial expansion must take place in a safe, secure, and equitable manner. Offshore activities in aquaculture and offshore wind are expected to increase competition for ocean space with existing activities, such as fisheries, shipping , oil and gas. Together with growing ambitions for marine protection, these developments emphasize the need for improved Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). To account for the lack of knowledge about key effects on ecosystems from e.g. offshore wind and/or offshore aquaculture development, careful consideration of uncertainties will be crucial to reduce the considerable trust gap among ocean stakeholders.
In the MARCO (MARine CO-existence scenario building) project, we utilize GIS (Geographic Information System) based data from different sources on V ulnerable Areas , spawning areas, and important areas for fisheries. These data are coupled with a system dynamics simulation model for the blue economy (i. e. wind, aquaculture, fisheries, and shipping activity) . The project uses the North Sea part of the Norwegian Economic Zone as a case study.
The MARCO toolbox will combine spatial and temporal analysis to capture this complexity, and the combined analysis address key uncertainties, barriers, and opportunities to deal with future spatial conflicts and to safeguard ocean health. The spatial analysis will utilize GIS technologies for mapping out plausible trajecto