Research and analysis

Evidence requirement R001: Improved spatial data on activity distribution and intensity

Published 20 September 2017

1. Requirement overview

1.1 Requirements

Improved spatial data on activity distribution and intensity

1.2 Requirement detail

The MMO, as marine regulators and planners, must consider the location and intensity of many marine activities in decision making within the MMO’s remit.

The MMO already has access to diverse activity data such as that presented in Marine Information System or generated through internal processes including marine licensing, but would benefit from continued improvement of the best available evidence, including up to date, reliable and standardised spatial data on the distribution and intensity of activities that may impact the marine environment individually or in combination.

The diversity of marine activities are described in the UK Marine Policy Statement. Of particular interest is information on the following sectors; tourism and recreation, cable routes and landfalls (particularly disused) and fishing activity from vessels less than 15m. The MMO is also interested in new or emerging activities.

1.3 MMO use

Marine Planning: Improvements to spatial activity distribution at the appropriate scale would benefit marine planning’s ability to write specific policies and to identify spatial conflicts.

Marine Licensing: Additional information would allow for improved validation of information during the marine licence determination process.

1.4 External interest

Natural England, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Local Planning Authorities, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

1.5 Delivery target

Ongoing to Q4 2020 – Spatial information can be integrated into decision making as it is delivered such as through updates to Marine Information System. or internal processes.

2. Aims and objectives

To improve the existing spatial data on the distribution of marine activities in English waters. This would improve both the resolution and frequency of updates to spatial data.

Objectives to deliver this requirement include to

• improve evidence on the distribution of marine activities, including resolution in space or time, coverage and completeness of data
• improve evidence for the intensity of marine activities
• improve timeliness of evidence obtained from regular reporting or update stand-alone evidence
• better define limitations, uncertainties and therefore confidence in data on marine activities

3. Existing evidence

3.1 MMO

The MMO has collated extensive data on activity for other government departments, public bodies or industry etc and presents this in MMO evidence portals like Marine Information System. The MMO also publishes data on license applications and fishing through the MMO Public Register and fisheries statistics respectively.

The MMO, independently or in collaboration, generate annually updated activity data including UK shipping density and routes based on ship Automatic Identification System (AIS) open source data and methods (MMO1066) or by analysis of Vessel Monitoring System data to describe fishing effort. The MMO has commissioned a number of evidence projects that present current and predicted future activity such as South marine plan areas futures analysis (MMO1039) and similar work in other plan areas. Targeted activity has focused on improving knowledge of particular activities including improving understanding of recreation activity distribution and intensity through initial data collection (MMO1013), area specific improvement (MMO1043) and developing and validating modelling approaches to provide insight over a larger area (MMO1064).

3.2 Academic

Defining the distribution and intensity of marine activities is not a primary objective for academia although studies have undertaken method development or described the distribution of activity as part of wider stud for example in assessing bottom trawling impacts on seabed integrity (Eigaard et al 2017).

3.3 Other

Joint Nature Conservation Committee are collating spatial data on human activities to understand human pressures and risk to habitat or species.

Examples of sector or industry specific data include UK Coastal Atlas of Recreational Boating that produced a ‘heat map’ of recreational use around the coast based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. While this improves understanding of recreation pressures, analysis did not include activity from small inshore vessels that operate without AIS.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Contract numbers MB0106 and MB0117) undertook mapping and confidence assessment of inshore fishing activity using aerial, land, and vessel-based sighting information based 2007 to 2009.
## Current activity

The MMO continues to improve on data products to which it contributes, or for which it is responsible including improvements in quality, timeliness and completeness. Marine activity data currently being collated include marine licence information, fishing effort and shipping density data.

4. Associated evidence requirements

R090: The intensity and impacts of marine recreation Activity data is a foundation for many other requirements including the distribution of pressures (generated by activities), social or economic value (of activities) monitoring change (in activities), or modelling underwater noise (based on activity)

5. Further details

For more information or to add further research to the existing evidence list please email evidence@marinemanagement.org.uk