Collaborative Research: Marine Spatial Planning and the Role of Community and Environmental Actors

这个项目将调查海洋空间规划是如何演变的，并继续被制定为美国的主要海洋政策。海洋空间规划（MSP）是一个新兴的海洋治理过程，旨在解决当前有关如何组织和利用国家海洋资源的问题。MSP是美国联邦政府国家海洋政策的核心组成部分，也是政府承诺实现基于生态系统的海洋管理的关键途径。海洋环境是越来越多的用户和活动的家园，MSP正在努力在一个全面的规划过程中建立框架。了解在MSP背景下产生的海洋治理过程对于维持沿海社区及其许多人所依赖的海洋资源至关重要。该项目将调查新兴的MSP政策是如何产生的，特别关注被称为多用途海洋地籍（MMC）的联邦地理空间数据库在为海洋空间决策创建制图基础方面的作用。该项目将研究沿海地区可持续发展政策的国家政策演变，沿海地区可持续发展政策在沿海地区可持续发展政策的持续制定中发挥的作用，以及这些过程对沿海社区、经济和社会结构或多或少地适应环境变化的影响。本研究将利用行动者网络理论、关键地理信息科学（GIS）和政治生态学来解决以下问题：1)在美国，MSP如何成为首选的海洋政策解决方案（例如，渔业、能源或水产养殖问题）？2)什么类型的信息（如科学、经济、社会）为MSP话语提供信息，这些信息是如何传递给公众的？3)社区和环境行为体如何由MMC等MSP工具构成（评估、衡量、代表），他们可能通过这些工具积累或失去哪些能力？为了回答这些问题，该项目将收集和分析与MSP有关的政府机构、非政府组织、行业团体和公共论坛的书面和音频记录。此外，该项目将收集和分析来自MMC的源数据和输出，并对MMC进行简短的组织人种志。预计项目结果将有助于阐明海洋管理方案的进程，并为改进这种海洋治理新方法的战略提供信息。该项目将分析哪些类型的人类和海洋资源信息正在被纳入MSP，随着研究人员和政策制定者不断推进旨在可视化和组织美国海洋利用的更大数据集，这是一项关键需求。该项目将切实促进对海洋管理的理解，同时，随着全国各地的社区参与以不同方式定义海洋空间的倡议（例如，水产养殖、捕捞份额、风能），帮助为MSP实践提供信息。更广泛地说，全球对新形式的海洋治理产生了前所未有的兴趣，“海洋议程”已成为国家和国际论坛的中心话题。虽然这项研究将集中在美国，但结果将对这些更大的过程具有重要意义。因此，这项研究的更广泛影响与政策进程的范围有关，这些政策进程将改写美国和其他地方的海洋治理。该项目之所以能够实现这些影响，是因为它与参与这些政策制定过程的关键人物和机构建立了联系，同时也得益于ppi之前对海洋政策辩论的研究和贡献。其他影响还包括培养一名博士生、指导一名博士后研究员，以及加强合作者之间的学术网络。

This project will investigate how Marine Spatial Planning has evolved and continues to be enacted as the principal ocean policy in the United States. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is an emerging process of ocean governance that seeks to address current concerns with how to organize and use the nation's marine resources. MSP is a central component of the US federal government's National Ocean Policy, and is the key avenue through which the government's commitment to ecosystem-based management of the oceans will be realized. The marine environment is home to a growing number of users and activities that MSP is working to frame within a comprehensive planning process. Understanding the process of ocean governance as produced within the context of MSP is critical to sustaining coastal communities and the marine resources many of them depend on. This project will investigate how emerging MSP policies are produced, focusing particularly on the role of the federal geospatial database known as the Multipurpose Marine Cadastre (MMC) in creating a cartographic basis for marine spatial decision-making. The project will examine the national policy evolution of MSP, what role the MMC plays in the continuing formulation of MSP, and the implications of these processes for making coastal communities, economies, and social structures more or less resilient to environmental changes. This research will draw on actor-network theory, critical Geographical Information Science (GIS), and political ecology to address the following questions: 1) How has MSP emerged as the preferred ocean policy solution (e.g., for fisheries, energy, or aquaculture questions) in the United States? 2) What types of information (e.g., scientific, economic, social) inform MSP discourses, and how is such information being transmitted to the public? 3) How are communities and environmental actors constituted (assessed, measured, represented) by MSP tools such as the MMC, and what capacities might they accumulate or lose through such tools? To answer these questions, the project will collect and analyze written and audio records from government agencies, non-government organizations, industry groups, and public forums concerned with MSP. Further, the project will collect and analyze source data and outputs from the MMC, and conduct a short organizational ethnography of the MMC. Project results are expected to help illuminate MSP processes and to inform strategies for improving this new method of oceans governance.This project will analyze what types of human and marine resource information is being incorporated into MSP, a critical need as researchers and policymakers move forward with ever-larger data sets designed to visualize and organize US ocean uses. The project will contribute practically to the understanding of ocean management, while helping to inform MSP practices as communities across the country engage with initiatives (e.g., aquaculture, catch shares, wind energy) that define ocean space in different ways. More generally, there is unprecedented worldwide interest in new forms of ocean governance, and the 'oceans agenda' has emerged as a central topic in both national and international forums. Although this research will focus on the US, results will have significance for these larger processes. Thus, the broader impact of this research is related to the scope of the policy processes that stand to rewrite ocean governance in the US and elsewhere. The project's ability to realize these impacts arises through its connections to key people and institutions involved in these policy-making processes, as well as the PIs' previous research on and contributions to ocean policy debates. Additional impacts will include the training of a PhD student, the mentoring of a post-doctoral researcher, and strengthened academic networks amongst the collaborators.