Preparatory Action on Marine Spatial Planning in the North Sea

MASPNOSE (with the project Plan Bothnia (Baltic)) was a follow up activity to the Integrated Maritime Policy, and was designed to assess the 10 key principles in DG MARE’s "Roadmap for Maritime Spatial Planning: Achieving common principles in the EU". The aim of both projects was to develop a common, cross-border, ecosystem based approach for MSP and encourage cooperation between countries.

MASPNOSE used 2 case studies. Each created an enabling platform to discuss transboundary MSP. The Thornton Bank study looked at how cross-border coordination could address wind energy development, shipping, fisheries, aquaculture and nature conservation and brought together government stakeholders that would not otherwise have been involved. The Dogger Bank study addressed fisheries, nature conservation and sustainable energy, and the project’s role was primarily facilitation and assessment of an existing process to prepare an international fisheries management plan, led by the NSRAC.

Project partners

• Wageningen University (NL) – Lead Partner
• IMARES Wageningen (NL)
• LEI Wageningen (NL)

Sub-contractors

• Van Hall Larenstein, University of Applied Sciences (NL)
• DELTARES (NL)
• Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut  (DE)
• DTU-AQUA, Technical University of Denmark (DK)
• University of Gent  (BE)