A fundamental goal of the Scottish Marine Bill is to streamline regulation and develop a new framework to coordinate and manage activities' around... » More

A fundamental goal of the Scottish Marine Bill is to streamline regulation and develop a new framework to coordinate and manage activities' around Scotland's coast. This study will evaluate and explore the application of different approaches, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to the development of a Scottish marine spatial planning framework, with a particular focus on decision-making for future aquaculture sites. Integral to this study will be the accurate assessment of the spatial distribution of human activities and their associated pressures, along with mapping of marine landscapes and determination of the nature of biological communities. Due to the need to integrate and manage all these factors, GIS will be used to capture, organise, analyse and display different types of geographically referenced information. Additionally, quantified empirical data on geographical characteristics, activities, impacts, and other relevant information, as well as statistical associations and probabilistic representations will be combined within a GIS-based model. This will allow for any uncertainty associated with the outcomes of proposed spatial planning scenarios to be visualised. This is applied and tested using historical data to proposed aquaculture sites, with an aim to achieve the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector.

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