Comparative analysis of Maritime Spatial Planning ... - Seanergy 2020

the required data. Once the „cadastre‟ has been updated it is made accessible to all participating partiesand public institutions.The INSPIRE directive (2007/2/EC) represents a driver in a number of countries to harmonise spatial datacollection and dissemination, although significant progress on making a data system operational andpublically accessible is not required until 2019. The directive requires each Member State to develop anational web-based application to distribute spatial data sets specified by the Directive, among othersrelevant to the marine zone: oceanographic geographical features, sea regions, habitats and biotopes,species distribution, energy resources, mineral resources, population distribution, aquaculture facilitiesand area management.Data format and accessibilityIt is generally agreed that the best format for maritime spatial data is a layered GIS system that ispublically available and at minimal cost. Significant data sets that are well coordinated and integrated areof no use until they are available in a suitable format to the right stakeholders for planning purposes.A number of countries have made use of web-based interactive maps, for instance both Germany andPortugal use a WebGIS system (Figure 1). Portugal made this available to stakeholders involved in theMarine Spatial Planning process and Germany has made the portal publically available and barrier free. Incontrast in a number of countries certain data are often only available to commercial partners or at a highcost. For example a comprehensive GIS system that has been built with a wide range of publically availabledata sets is only currently available to commercial partners of the Crown Estate.Figure 1. Portugal’s WebGIS interfaceDeliverable 2.316 | P a g e