Blue economy: innovation clusters, Atlantic natural resources management and maritime spatial planning

The 2-years Blue Economy project aims at developing and demonstrating EO driven data solutions, which deliver actionable information to key coastal stakeholders. Applications will focus on the areas of coastal monitoring, ocean renewable energy, and marine litter. It is being implemented through the European Space Agency’s Atlantic Regional Initiative.

In parallel, a range of Atlantic-focused recommendations will be developed from engaged stakeholder inputs, and community development activities. These perspectives will (i) inform and enhance the roadmap being developed by the European Space Agency for the Atlantic Region, and (ii) find a seed Community of Practice of maritime-EO technology innovators for the Atlantic, focused on developing EO solutions to address Marine Strategy Framework, and Marine Spatial Planning ambitions.

Rationale:

• As the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSPD) and Marine Strategy Framework (MSFD) directives are implemented across Europe, EU member states and aligning nations need innovative information gathering tools to monitor progress towards the goals of these two directives.
• Information from satellites can satisfy a number of these monitoring needs.
• The EO sector needs to demonstrate technological viability, and while doing so engage with policy makers and legislators to ensure information products are acceptable for monitoring and legal purposes.
• The Blue Economy project is a demonstration of this potential for Atlantic coastal states.

A synthesis of products/services being developed is available in these slides.