1. Early Warning System -Climate-smart spatial management of UK fisheries, aquaculture and conservation
The MSPACE Early Warning System (EWS), developed in collaboration with the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership, is designed to deliver timely and actionable information to support Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and climate-smart management. The main report, along with the summary for policy makers and infographic, showcases a state-of-the-art modelling analysis that highlights where, and for how long, marine conservation, fisheries and aquaculture could be best supported across UK seas.
The MSPACE Early Warning System, also includes the full climate change assessment report, supplementary model validation report, supplementary seabed condition report, links to output GIS datasets and summary for policy makers.
These resources are publicly available on the MCCIP website.
Early Warning System which is currently hosted at the MCCIP website here.
2. A description of the economic modelling approach undertaken in the project: Tensions between the carbon, employment and value added generated by marine sectors: Triple bottom line analysis using a novel input–output table for the UK – Roca Florido – Sustainable Development – Wiley Online Library
3. MSPACE Stakeholder Engagement Workshops Reports
In 2023, MSPACE held workshops across the UK Nations to gather insights from Marine Spatial Planning communities. We invited individuals directly involved in the MSP process to ensure that MSPACE’s outputs align with their needs and are presented in ways that are easy for them to use. This was in support of the future design of climate-smart MSP.
The workshops offered a valuable opportunity for participants to learn more about the Early Warning System and potential climate-smart management responses. They also provided a unique opportunity to co-design MSPACE’s work as we progressed with our project. Their involvement was instrumental in informing the selection of management alternatives that are both socially acceptable and economically viable, and it contributed to the research community of practice in marine spatial planning, as detailed in the reports below.
4. GIS products resulting from modelling data analyses, that can be used in the development of UK marine plans (e.g. as currently done by the East Marine Plan MMO Team, the Marine Plan for Northern Ireland DAERA team, and the Orkney Islands Marine Plan team at the Orkney Islands Council); conservation and restoration siting (as currently ongoing at the JNCC MPA team); and the development of fisheries management plans (as currently ongoing with the MMO/DEFRA Celtic Seas Fisheries Management Plan teams): MBA/DASSH Data Catalogue – 2023, Marine Spatial Planning Addressing Climate Effects (MSPACE) UK EEZ climate change hotspots/refugia shapefiles
Annex 1: Validation of modelling data sets used in the technical report: Technical report: validation of model datasets used in Early-warning system
Annex 2: Present Seabed Habitat Condition in the UK EEZ (considered alongside climate change in the technical report): Report of Task 1.3 Seabed Habitat Condition Assessment in the UK EEZ
The science: Bright spots as climate–smart marine spatial planning tools for conservation and blue growth
Projects: Marine Spatial Planning Addressing Climate Effects (MSPACE) – Sustainable Management of Marine Resources (smmr.org.uk) | NECCTON – New Copernicus Capability for Trophic Ocean Networks | Future MARES | ACTNOW | EU Marine Research Project | Working Group for Marine Planning and Coastal Zone Management
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By working through each of the four research themes, MSPACE hope to produce the following outputs:
There is also significant potential for application of the overall lessons learned in MSPACE to the broader UK planning landscape, including MSPs for overseas territories. This is possible through the diversity of UK planning contexts explored in the project, and the consortium’s strong links to key marine industries and marine planning communities.