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This chapter introduces marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) from the perspective of research and practice. After providing some basic definitions and terminology, it shows how MSP has developed since its inception, ending with a description of its current status of adoption around the world. It also sets out how MSP has been received in various academic disciplines and traces some of the key discussions that have emerged. The chapter closes by providing a brief overview of the subsequent chapters.

Oceans have held varying places in the imagination of societies, always linked to particular cultures and shifting in line with predominant world views and developing socio-economic and technological capacities. This chapter presents three Western ways of looking at the ocean. Each emerged at a particular period, but all continue to shape today’s conceptions of the ocean. There are many other ways of conceptualising the ocean, and different concepts exist concurrently, resulting in a multiplicity of perspectives that are changing over time. Although some scholars are debating whether it is possible to know the ocean at all, the selected concepts—incomplete though they may be—also point to contradictory perceptions of the ocean that may have a bearing on how we do maritime spatial planning.

Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) integrates the connections between land, air, water and all living things including human beings and their institutions. The location of the Irish Sea, between major historical industrial centres, its history of use and exploitation, combined with its hydrographic characteristics, have led to the current patterns of use. EBM efforts have been ongoing for over a decade but political boundaries have led to fragmented governance. The forthcoming UK exit from the European Union (EU) may pose further challenges. This chapter examines articulations between political boundaries, spatial scales of Marine Spatial Planning and nested social-ecological systems including the gyre in the western Irish Sea, and Dublin Bay. Examples of emerging best practices are provided and the challenges of data availability for ecosystem services are considered.

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) intends to create an improved, rational use of the ocean to reduce conflict among competing uses to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives. Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) can contribute to MSP because it is also spatially explicit, deliberately seeks to reduce conflict and generates an evidence-based prioritisation of ocean-space use. Importantly, SCP includes biodiversity representation and persistence, is underpinned by quantitative targets and uses complementarity to achieve targets efficiently. Therefore, designing Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) using SCP improves their identification and delineation compared to current expert-based approaches, with greater likelihood of uptake in MSP because their SCP-based design deliberately avoids competing activities where possible. These principles are demonstrated in a case study of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem.

In economics, maritime/marine spatial planning (MSP) can be classified as a public choice mechanism designed to alleviate market failure. As such, MSP should ensure rational use or conservation of sea space in situations where the market cannot deliver optimal solutions. In this chapter, both market and public choice mechanisms for allocating sea space are discussed. The final conclusion is that both are closely interrelated. MSP cannot neglect market forces; however, the market itself is unable to allocate space to issues considered important from a societal point of view, such as nature conservation, defence or non-use of the sea.

This chapter discusses the role of Maritime spatial planning (MSP) and its relationship to Blue Growth. After presenting differences among European sea-basins with regard to blue sector development, it underlines the need for a differentiated definition and policy support for Blue Growth. We argue that MSP should be adapted towards the different Blue Growth support needs of countries, regions and maritime sectors throughout Europe. The success of MSP as a tool to support Blue Growth depends on how strongly MSP is intertwined with other measures of the Integrated Maritime Policy and territorial development measures. MSP should be seen more strongly in strategic future development planning, for example, highlighting potential development areas which may stimulate economic growth in territorial areas lagging behind others.

Bringing together the complex social and cultural dimensions of marine spatial planning (MSP), this chapter examines how these two terms are applied (or not) in the context of MSP. Global marine and coastal planning continues to recognise that human activities must be considered in order to account for the dynamic interconnectivity between society and the sea. Many research fields explore the importance of the sea to identity, sense of place, health or community cohesion. However, these draw on a range of different assumptions to mainstream marine science and struggle to be incorporated into traditional policy processes, environmental assessments and large-scale planning processes. In this chapter, we interrogate the concept of ‘socio-cultural’, examining how this is being defined and applied across the MSP landscape.

While there is growing critique emerging to address social sustainability in marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP), overwhelmingly attention has been on governance, economic and environmental aspects. This chapter redresses this by proposing a conceptual framework to elucidate key features of social sustainability in MSP. The ambition is to both note the existing critique of MSP and go beyond it by more clearly and comprehensively articulating how social sustainability could be conceived in MSP, as well as how this framework could be applied to analyse MSP practice. Key features of social sustainability elaborated are: deepening democratic decision-making, inclusion of socio-cultural values and knowledge, equitable distribution and social cohesion. Finally, the chapter concludes by nominating strategies to give greater visibility to social sustainability as a key MSP concern.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been lauded as a remedy to unsuitable marine management. There is, however, growing MSP research illustrating that it is failing to foster paradigm shifts towards sustainable governance. The gap between MSP theory and practice is due to its asocial and apolitical implementation. This narrow version of MSP has been advanced through post-political planning and uncritical rationalities. The result is a choreographed form of MSP, with clearly defined outcomes that serve the needs of elite actors rather than the public interest. This chapter argues that to recapture its democratising potential, MSP requires explicit engagement with politics and power. We highlight the use of the boundary object lens and citizen science as two potential avenues to facilitate this engagement.

Presently, institutional systems and practices in marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) are evolving rapidly. At the same time, cross-border learning and exchange are still at an early stage. This chapter is based on the need to assess and compare participation processes across cases and countries and foster learning to develop public participation in MSP. Based on theoretical reflections, but anchored in results derived from the BaltSpace and the Baltic SCOPE projects, we present an analytical framework to characterise participation in MSP, including a participation ladder emphasising power sharing, roles, functions and learning. It is inspired by the land-based planning discourse, rural development literature, natural resource and conflict management and the latest publications with an MSP perspective including one in this book.