Evidence synthesis to inform monitoring and evaluation of marine spatial management in the UK

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Given the economic, social and environmental value of the marine environment it makes sense to manage it in a way that ensures long term sustainability of both ecosystems and human uses. We can only do this if we understand the impact that human activities and management practises have on marine systems, including people. Spatial management measures such as fishery closures, marine protected areas and marine plans have emerged as a core component of the UK's marine management portfolio. In essence, spatial management aims to incorporate the diversity of human uses, consider the compatibility of different activities, and balance use with the impacts of these activities on biodiversity and people. Yet despite the extensive use of spatial management, substantial gaps in understanding exist regarding how to monitor the impacts of spatial management measures and evaluate their effectiveness across environmental, social and economic outcomes.Our research aims to systematically bring together the available evidence on existing and emerging environmental, social and economic techniques for monitoring the effects of spatial management measures and evaluating their effectiveness. In particular we will focus on examples from countries with a coastline and in a similar socio-economic and political context to the UK. By clearly and transparently describing this evidence, we will be able to explore understanding surrounding methods for how to monitor and evaluate spatial management measures, and inform the development of guidelines and future monitoring and evaluation practises across the UK.Our findings, in the form of a database, will be published alongside an article in the open-access journal Environmental Evidence, providing a highly accessible, freely available summary of the evidence. We will also produce a one-page policy summary, to disseminate our results to decision-makers, and a set of guidelines for use to facilitate application of our database. By making these outputs publicly available and easy to use we will give our work a lasting legacy beyond the life of the project. For example, researchers will be able to easily update and build on our database as desired or design research to fill evidence gaps, and decision-makers will be able to easily locate evidence of relevance to inform their monitoring and management activities. We will involve key stakeholders through our Stakeholder Group in the design of our project and discuss our results with them to ensure they are used to help inform spatial management in the UK.The evidence base collated within this project is anticipated to benefit a wide range of sectors and users of the marine environment, as well as nature conservation and academic research. These benefits will extend beyond the UK to international policy audiences facing similar challenges in determining the impact of their spatial management activities. Our extended review team demonstrates the interdisciplinarity nature of this project being composed of researchers specialising in marine and fisheries management from environmental, social, economic and policy perspectives based across academic and charitable institutions. Our existing Stakeholder Group attests to the value of this project with support from: the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Marine Scotland Science (MSS), Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs), and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). We will seek to extend our Stakeholder Group to incorporate all of the UK Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies during the project programme.Keywords: evaluation methods; fishery closure; marine spatial management; marine protected area; marine spatial plan; monitoring methods; systematic map