Towards Solent Marine Planning (SoMaP)

The SoMaP project was completed in 2010, the final reports and outputs are available from the Solent Forum Office and include:

• The Final Project Report - Evaluations and Recommendations
• An analysis of the role of stakeholders in the marine planning process 
• Marine Planning portal
• Conference proceedings of the Southern Marine Planning Conference, 2010
   

The aim of the project was to scope the possibility of a Solent marine planning system by starting to build a Solent-wide coastal and marine policy framework including a spatial database of plans, policies and activities by sector. Two strands to the project included: understanding what data is required at this initial stage to strategically assess different sectors plans and policies in the Solent and; to work closely with a range of stakeholders represented in all sectors and governance of the Solent to obtain this information and explore their views towards a Solent scale marine plan.

The project followed a programme agreed by the project Steering Group and included the following seven work packages.
 

1. Establish a communications strategy.
2. Reiterate national progress on Marine Spatial Planning by the Defra implementation team back to stakeholders.
3. Scope with stakeholders the case for a marine plan at a Solent scale.
4. Understand the information requirements for a Solent Marine Planning System.
5. Agree pilot case study sectors, to represent pressing Solent issues and land and marine interactions, and use these to test the data and information.
6. Obtain and map all sectoral policies (click on 'raw data' to view below keywords box) within the Solent; obtain further data as agreed in work package.
7. Evaluate project findings and make recommendations to stakeholders.