Chapter 6
Aquaculture Site-Selection and Marine
Spatial Planning: The Roles of GIS-Based
Tools and Models
Vanessa Stelzenmüller, A. Gimpel, M. Gopnik and K. Gee
Abstract Around the globe, increasing human activities in coastal and offshore
waters have created complex conflicts between different sectors competing for
space and between the use and conservation of ocean resources. Like other users,
aquaculture proponents evaluate potential offshore sites based primarily on their
biological suitability, technical feasibility, and cost considerations. Recently,
Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has been promoted as an approach for achieving
more ecosystem-based marine management, with a focus on balancing multiple
management objectives in a holistic way. Both industry-specific and multiple-use
planners all rely heavily on spatially-referenced data, Geographic Information
System (GIS)-based analytical tools, and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to
explore a range of options and assess their costs and benefits. Although ecological
factors can currently be assessed fairly comprehensively, better tools are needed to
evaluate and incorporate the economic and social considerations that will also be
critical to identifying potential sites and achieving successful marine plans. This
section highlights the advances in GIS-based DSS in relation to their capability for
aquaculture site selection and their integration into multiple-use MSP. A special
case of multiple-use planning—the potential co-location of offshore wind energy
and aquaculture—is also discussed, including an example in the German EEZ of the
North Sea.
V. Stelzenmüller (&) Á A. Gimpel
Thünen-Institute of Sea Fisheries, Palmaille 9, 22767 Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: vanessa.stelzenmueller@thuenen.de
M. Gopnik
Independent Consultant, Washington DC, USA
K. Gee
Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
© The Author(s) 2017
B.H. Buck and R. Langan (eds.), Aquaculture Perspective of Multi-Use Sites
in the Open Ocean, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51159-7_6
131
Aquaculture Site-Selection and Marine
Spatial Planning: The Roles of GIS-Based
Tools and Models
Vanessa Stelzenmüller, A. Gimpel, M. Gopnik and K. Gee
Abstract Around the globe, increasing human activities in coastal and offshore
waters have created complex conflicts between different sectors competing for
space and between the use and conservation of ocean resources. Like other users,
aquaculture proponents evaluate potential offshore sites based primarily on their
biological suitability, technical feasibility, and cost considerations. Recently,
Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has been promoted as an approach for achieving
more ecosystem-based marine management, with a focus on balancing multiple
management objectives in a holistic way. Both industry-specific and multiple-use
planners all rely heavily on spatially-referenced data, Geographic Information
System (GIS)-based analytical tools, and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to
explore a range of options and assess their costs and benefits. Although ecological
factors can currently be assessed fairly comprehensively, better tools are needed to
evaluate and incorporate the economic and social considerations that will also be
critical to identifying potential sites and achieving successful marine plans. This
section highlights the advances in GIS-based DSS in relation to their capability for
aquaculture site selection and their integration into multiple-use MSP. A special
case of multiple-use planning—the potential co-location of offshore wind energy
and aquaculture—is also discussed, including an example in the German EEZ of the
North Sea.
V. Stelzenmüller (&) Á A. Gimpel
Thünen-Institute of Sea Fisheries, Palmaille 9, 22767 Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: vanessa.stelzenmueller@thuenen.de
M. Gopnik
Independent Consultant, Washington DC, USA
K. Gee
Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
© The Author(s) 2017
B.H. Buck and R. Langan (eds.), Aquaculture Perspective of Multi-Use Sites
in the Open Ocean, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51159-7_6
131