How marine spatial plans are developed

Elements of the plan development process, common to many marine spatial planning initiatives, include:

• Identification of goals, principles and strategies to guide the process
• Collation of spatial information on the marine environment
• Bioregionalisation of the planning region (that is spatially delineating the marine area into different categories based on broad habitat type)
• Identification of ecologically important and sensitive areas
• Collation of spatial information on human uses of, and values attached to, the marine environment
• Spatial analysis of compatibilities and conflicts
• Consideration of management approaches and options
• Identification of spatial management areas
• Finalisation of the plan
• Implementation of the plan
• Evaluation and monitoring 

Last updated at 2:11PM on February 25, 2015