Earth observation and socio-economic data visualisation in support of marine governance and future marine economic prosperity and health

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Societies rely fundamentally on the natural environment and the ecosystem services it provides to fulfil economic and social goals including job generation and maintenance of cultural links with healthy environments. Earth observation (EO) combined with socio-economic data can help better inform planning to optimise the sustainable use of the natural environment for economic growth and conservation efforts. Use of socio-economic analysis can also ensure that analysis at different spatial scales can be performed addressing distributional, resilience and vulnerability issues at community level. Marine spatial plans are being used to inform decisions of where to locate and co-locate various economic and conservation activities in the marine environment. However, they are currently compiled in isolation of EO data which could provide critical temporal and spatial information of, for example, water quality, chlorophyll concentration, presence of harmful algal blooms (HAB), sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean fronts. These data could be used, alongside other satellite data, including the monitoring of fishing vessels and shipping movements, to: evaluate whether current activities are most efficiently located from an environmental perspective; identify potential areas for further economic development in marine industries, such as power generation, aquaculture, and tourism, and; improve identification of areas for the protection of outstanding marine quality and designation of marine reserves. Social science can then be used to translate these development options into economic (e.g. estimation of job creation, revenue generation, distribution of benefits within coastal communities, level of diversification of industries) and social (e.g. highlighting importance of sense of place, cultural identity, social cohesion) impacts to assist in the decisions of which development options to pursue. These outputs will provide information to support evidence-based governance at the national and local levels as well as aiding stakeholder participation in decisions.