P2 Sustainable use of common resources
2.2. Sustainably planned and managed marine and coastal areas
Southern Finland - Estonia
01.10.2016 - 31.12.2019
€1 997 882
€1 563 522
The Plan4Blue project promotes sustainable planning and management of marine and coastal areas of the Gulf of Finland and the Archipelago Sea by developing a Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) capacity. This aim will be achieved by setting up a cross-border collaboration in the field for this area.
The project supports growth of the marine and maritime sectors in a way that emphasizes the need to find a balance between economic, social and environmental goals. Because many of the economic activities cross borders and have cross-border impacts, planning and management requires cross-border collaboration between stakeholders and authorities.
The project responds directly to the programme goals by developing capacity in cross-border MSP in order to ensure a sustainable use of common resources. The project facilitates the collaboration of stakeholders and authorities to find cross-border solutions for sustainable planning and management of marine and coastal areas. The project focuses on cross-border aspects, but addresses also national and county levels as appropriate. The result will help to improve management of Gulf of Finland and its coastal areas.
Suomen ympäristökeskus
Country: FI
Partner budget: 520.807 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 390.605 EUR ERDF
Tartu Ülikool
Country: EE
Partner budget: 453.400 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 385.390 EUR ERDF
Turun yliopisto
Country: FI
Partner budget: 489.799 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 367.349 EUR ERDF
Uudenmaan liitto
Country: FI
www.uudenmaanliitto.fi/englanti
Partner budget: 168.181 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 126.136 EUR ERDF
Varsinais-Suomen liitto
Country: FI
Partner budget: 167.995 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 125.996 EUR ERDF
MTÜ Balti Keskkonnafoorum
Country: EE
Partner budget: 197.700 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 168.045 EUR ERDF
Rahandusministeerium
Country: EE
Harju Maavalitsus
Country: EE
Ida-Viru Maavalitsus
Country: EE
Lääne-Viru Maavalitsus
Country: EE
Achieved results
Plan4Blue - maritime spatial planning for future
The Plan4Blue project worked with Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), under which it produced four future scenarios to support planning and management activities.
These scenarios discuss:
- Marine energy
- The maritime cluster
- Blue bioeconomy & subsea resources and
- Maritime tourism.
Planning was improved in the Finnish Gulf area between Finland and Estonia. Also, Russia and Åland islands were included on an information exchange level.
The project also created a guidance document to manage environmental risks related to human activities. For the guidance document, three case studies on the topics of shipping, pelagic fishing and nature conservation were conducted. Based on this, recommendations were given on how each of these topics should be addressed in MSP and what are important cross-border considerations. In addition, the project developed recommendations for cross-border collaboration in the frame of MSP.
Concrete improvements by the project include:
- Increased cross-border coherence of MSP through joint planning and management activities
- Increased awareness of the sustainable use of resources
- Improved capacity of planners, managers and stakeholders to assess what impact the project cross-border marine activities have had on environmental and socio-economic topics.
During implementation, the project published several documents as tangible proof for the improved MSP:
- The main results are the scenarios, for which also animations and infographics have been published.
- There are publications and reports published on each of the project topics; sustainable blue economies, environmental management of Maritime Spatial Planning, cross-border spatial data analysis and map visualisations and cross-border collaboration in MSP.
- Recommendations for maritime spatial planning for sustainable blue economies (pdf)
Publications related to the above topics are listed below
Sustainable Blue Economies:
- Blue Growth ─ Drivers and alternative scenarios for the Gulf of Finland and the Archipelago Seacenario (pdf, 2 MB). 2018. Publications of the Centre for Maritime Studies, Brahea Centre at the University of Turku. A 75.
- Assessment of the role of marine industries in the region (pdf, 2 MB). 2018
Environmental Management:
- Marine environmental vulnerability and cumulative risk profiles to support ecosystem-based adaptive maritime spatial planning. 2018. Aps, R., Herkül, K. et.al. ICES Journal of Marine Science
- Environmental management strategy for maritime spatial planning (pdf, 1 MB, June 2019)
- Guidelines on environmental management for sustainable MSP (pdf, 1 MB, August 2019)
Spatial Analysis:
- Guide for cross-border spatial data analysis in Maritime Spatial Planning (pdf, 2 MB). Practical handbook. 2019. Nylén T, Tolvanen H, Erkkilä-Välimäki A & Roose M. Publications of the Department of Geography and Geology of University of Turku 12. University of Turku, Turku.
- Map visualisations of Plan4Blue MSP case studies (pdf, 5 MB). Map deliverable. 2019. Roose, M., Nylén, T., Tolvanen, H., Erkkilä-Välimäki, A. Plan4Blue report.
- From silent knowledge to spatial information – Mapping blue growth scenarios for maritime spatial planning. Scientific article. 2019. Tolvanen, H, Erkkilä-Välimäki, A, Nylén, T (2019). Marine Policy 107, 103598.
Cross-border collaboration in MSP:
- Recommendations for cross-border collaboration (pdf, 1 MB, 2019)
More available on the project website.
- Increased cross-border coherence of MSP through joint planning and management activities
- Increased awareness of the sustainable use of resources
- Improved capacity of planners, managers and stakeholders to assess what impact the project cross-border marine activities have had on environmental and socio-economic topics.
