A Nordic-Baltic Marine Spatial Management Tool
Marine natural resources and environmental challenges transcend national boundaries, necessitating international cooperation for their sustainable management and protection. The goal of the NordicSpatial project has been to design a tool to facilitate collaborative efforts in basin-level spatial planning and improve coherence of marine spatial plans across borders, The tool supports informal collaboration amongst marine spatial planners and stakeholders – direct communication, in an effective way, early in the planning process. The project demonstrates the possibilities that arise when data from multiple nations is combined to create an authoritative knowledge base for responsible decisionmaking on a sea basin level.
The NordicSpatial project draws on 10 years of experience in developing Norway's National Marine Spatial Management Tool and Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure. The main focus for the project has been the Baltic Sea.
Project information:
Duration: 2022-2025
Financed by: Nordic Council of ministers
Project lead: Norwegian Mapping Authority
Technical responsible: BarentsWatch
Involving participants from- Finland
- Sweden
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Norway
Data
For a successful cross-border cooperation, data sharing is essential – the data needs to be trustworthy, traceable and up-to-date. The public data currently used in the NordicSpatial tool is streamed directly from EMODnet and HELCOM, the marine data portals for Europe and the Baltic Sea, where data from many sources is assembled and harmonized. As part of the project, some relevant datasets have undergone an assessment of whether they follow the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship, i.e. they are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.
In addition to accessing the public data catalogue, users can add their own data to the tool and control access to this data.
Tool
Maps
Make and Save maps using data from the public data catalogue or your own private data
Sharing
Share your maps to provide common understanding of your spatial plans
Collaboration
Collaborate by co-editing the maps or adding comments. The tool supports version control to ensure that you keep track of your work
Easy to use
The tool is free and web-based – no need for downloads or licenses. It is mainly designed for MSP professionals and stakeholders with a minimal of GIS competence, but with a need for discussing how they can agree on dilemmas by means of available maps from their countries and regions
Scalability
There is nothing in the tool limiting it to transnational cooperation – you can just as well use it in national cooperation with stakeholders or within your own agency or ministry
Universal functionality
The tools functionality is not specific to the Baltic, but can be applied across the world when the right data is added
Security and privacy
Your data is stored and handled by BarentsWatch through our service provider Bouvet. We do not disclose your personal information to others unless there is a legal basis for such disclosure. All processing of personal information that we undertake occurs within the EU/EEA area. Our full privacy policy can be read here: https://www.barentswatch.no/en/contact-us/processing-of-personal-data/
Using the tool is free, and you can create an account using only your email address. All maps and projects are only accessible for you and users you choose to share them with. Maps and projects within the tool are deleted automatically if no one is set as owner. So, if you delete your user, be sure to hand over owner rights first.
Contact
evert.flier at kartverket.no
To make Nordic Spatial the best it can be for you as a user, we gladly accept any input you may have. Feel free to share your feedback with us at post@barentswatch.no.