Marine Planning Issues with Supporting Evidence

Closes 10 Jan 2025

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Future Overlapping Themes

Marine Plans have a 20 year horizon and therefore need to have a forward look ahead. The marine planning team have identified some potential issues that marine sectors may face in the future. The identification has been conducted through continuous policy monitoring since plan adoption (2014) and a horizon scanning exercise conducted earlier in the year. The issues have been provided below and are supported by the evidence sources found here.

We are keen to understand if these issues are of key significance for the future within the marine environment, and if there are any further potential future issues attaining to these sectors.

Please note: the questions are not compulsory, if you do not wish to respond please leave them blank.

How to Upload Evidence

Each survey question provides you with an opportunity to upload any supporting evidence you are aware of / hold to support the issues discussed.

  • Files uploaded must be under 25 MB.
  • You can only upload one file per survey question.
  • If you require several pieces of evidence to be uploaded, please link to the available evidence within a word document and upload that.

To upload this evidence:

  1. Click on ‘Choose file’
  2. Search your documents for the required evidence
  3. Click ‘open’ to upload the evidence
  4. The document will appear to the right of the ‘choose file’ button once uploaded

To re-submit evidence, please click ‘clear file’ and follow the process above to re-upload.

If you have any queries, please email: planning@marinemanagement.org.uk

1. Climate Change: do you agree with the issues identified below for this sector? If not, please leave the box unchecked.

  1. Climate change is, and continues to, change ecosystem attributes in the east marine plan areas and those adjacent. Effects include ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and productivity changes. It is necessary to ensure that the new East Marine Plan is climate-smart, and that climate-related tools such as models are used to assess future spatio-temporal changes. 

  1. Over the next 20 years, climate change will continue to increase storminess and cause sea level rise, leading to coastal erosion and flooding. At the same time, climate change will also cause increased drought and high temperatures. Activities and development taking place in the east marine plan areas will need to be resilient to the future challenges that climate change will present. 

There is a limit of 800 characters
There is a limit of 800 characters

Please upload any supporting evidence you may have to support the issues you have identified above.

Please make sure your file is under 25MB
2. Co-Existence: do you agree with the issues identified below for this sector? If not, please leave the box unchecked.

  1. The development of the Marine Spatial Prioritisation Programme will need to be reflected in the new East Marine Plan. Co-existence policies require futureproofing, especially when considering potential trade-offs where co-existence is problematic or impractical. 

  1. Changes to the environment due to climate change may impact our current understanding of which activities can co-exist, which will also likely be impacted by future government policy (for example regarding energy, food security and climate). Therefore, our understanding of what, where and when activities can co-exist will need to be flexible. 

There is a limit of 800 characters
There is a limit of 800 characters

Please upload any supporting evidence you may have to support the issues you have identified above.

Please make sure your file is under 25MB
3. Cumulative Effects: do you agree with the issues identified below for this sector? If not, please leave the box unchecked.

  1. The future expansion of offshore wind development will result in environmental challenges, including increasing levels of underwater noise and bird disturbance.  

  1. The impacts of climate change (for example increasing ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, deoxygenation and productivity changes) are likely to intensify in the future. This will increase the vulnerability of ecosystems, which may also experience intensified pressure from other activities. 

There is a limit of 800 characters
There is a limit of 800 characters

Please upload any supporting evidence you may have to support the issues you have identified above.

Please make sure your file is under 25MB