One of the most pressing regulatory issues for aquaculture is finding sufficient suitable locations to meet the rapidly expanding demand.
Aquaculture must compete with other coastal zone users such as shipping, fishermen, leisure craft etc, while also minimising its impact on the marine environment ( for example, NOAA Aquaculture Programme 2008 Offshore Aquaculture in the United States gives examples of these issues in the American context).
These competing stakeholder needs have to be managed through an arduous, expensive and time consuming system of government licences and planning restrictions. This regulatory environment is challenging for such a comparatively small industry and has proved a barrier to growth for near shore aquaculture, where these issues are at their most acute.
A possible solution to these problems lies in using web-based GIS technology.
The Norwegian partners in a GIS project I worked on developed an application to support regulatory decisions on coastal zone management. It was used by both local and regional government and local SMEs to analyse the potential for marine business developments in the local area.
After the close of the project, the application was merged with the region’s wider online atlas in recognition that local land uses (as well as marine uses) were also relevant in coastal zone management decision making (http://www.fylkesatlas.no/ - in Norwegian).
Web-based GIS is a powerful tool for publicising and consulting on all types of regional planning issues. It could have significant potential for both identifying suitable sites for aquaculture and reducing the bureacracy of regulatory processes in getting new sites established.
The biggest challenge identifed from the project I worked on was in building relationships between local government and SMEs to jointly develop and use the tool - this cross-sector partnership was a new way of working for most people involved.
More information on the Coastal Zone Management decision making tool is available in the project’s Final Demonstration report which is available at http://www.geoshare.net/default.asp?ACT=24&id=0&dir=Qk36UkSYAoeo&cat=pED0aMS509so (in English).