A North Sea Perspective on Shipping, Energy and Environmental Aspects in Maritime Spatial Planning (NorthSEE)
Project background
- The North Sea Region (NSR) is one of the busiest areas for shipping and exploitation of natural resources (oil, gas, wind, etc.) in the world, and contains unique natural reserves.
- The countries around the NSR are frontrunners when it comes to Maritime Spatial Planning. Most of them have implemented or are developing national Maritime Spatial Plans to promote sustainable development of the sea within their national boundaries.
- Relevant authorities have used their own planning methods and processes to develop these plans. Exchange of the different approaches can serve as a source of inspiration for improving national MSP processes. Furthermore exchange can improve mutual understanding of the different national MSP systems and hence facilitate coordination.
- Given that the North Sea is a transnational area, coordination among national Maritime Spatial Plans is useful to capture synergies and to prevent incompatibilities concerning shipping routes, energy infrastructure and environmental protection.
Objectives
The NorthSEE project aims to achieve:
- Greater coherence in Maritime Spatial Planning (processes) and in Maritime Spatial Plans (capturing synergies and preventing incompatibilies.
- Creating better conditions for sustainable development of the area in the fields of shipping, energy and environment protection.
Activities
Actions within activities
Click on the activity names (or in the side balk left) for a detailed description of the actions within the activities.
Sectoral activities
Environment 
Shipping 
Energy
Integrated and horizontal activities
MSP Coordination 
MSP Challenge 
Infoquarium
Project presentation
The MSP Challenge in the NorthSEE project
Latest Project News
NorthSEE Interim Findings Brochure published online
14 May 2020New NorthSEE Interim Findings Brochure (May 2020) is now available online.
…
Current status and future trends of grid cables, electricity interconnectors and pipelines in the North Sea
13 June 2019High densities of submarine cables (including both power and telecommunication cables) and pipelines (for oil or gas transport) run across large stret…
Read more
Connecting Seas conference in the Deutsche Seeschifffahrt Magazine
16 April 2019The Connecting Seas conference in Hamburg has been a great knowledge sharing and networking event for Maritime Spatial Planning themselves, but also f…
Read more
First joint North Sea and Baltic Sea conference in Hamburg
07 March 2019The NorthSEE and Baltic LINes maritime spatial planning conference Connecting Seas took place on 13 – 14 February 2019 in Hamburg, Germany. For th…
NorthSEE in Offshore Wind Magazine (winter 2018/2019 edition)
23 January 2019The offshore wind energy sector is one of the key target groups of stakeholders for the NorthSEE project. In this sector, the 'Offshore Wind magazine'…
Read more