lessons learned from the „west gdansk bay” pilot project

Final Meeting Ravenna 27.03.08

Lessons learned from the„West Gdansk Bay”

Pilot Project

Andrzej Cieslak, Hanna Kamrowska,

Anna Stelmaszyk-Swierczyńska - Maritime Office in Gdynia

Juliusz Gajewski, Jacek Zaucha - Maritime Institute in Gdansk

Final Meeting Ravenna 27.03.08 Final Meeting Ravenna 27.03.08


Basic Facts about the pilot project

• Name: Pilot sea-use plan for the west part of the Gulf of Gdansk

• Who

– Procedures – Maritime Office in Gdynia

– Plan – Maritime Institute in Gdansk to order of MO Gdynia

• When: May 2007 – March 2008


Activities completed

• Preliminary info on Maritime Office webpage• 1 stakeholder meeting• 4 comprehensive studies completed (on sea mammals, on

ichthyofauna, on habitats and on spatial development of adjacent land)

• Study of conditions of spatial development of the pilot study area• The Pilot Plan itself (text and 2 basic maps)• Transfer of experience to Russia (through TACIS project „East-

West Window”)


Follow up activities planned

1. Laying out the plan at MO and placing it on MO webpage

2. Stakeholder meeting

3. Final revision of plan

4. Basing on gained experience – work with the Ministry of Infrastructure on improvement of existing law:

- Act on maritime areas of Poland (chapter on spatial planning of sea areas), and some small changes in other Acts int. alia to include ICZM principles into planning procedures

- new Ordinance on scope of sea spatial plans, requirements concerning planning and cartographic materials, symbols, nomenclature and documentation of planning activities


Follow up activities planned (ctd)

5. Introducing the experience of the Pilot Project into the Polish National Spatial Development Concept

6. Development of vision / strategic plan for the whole Polish sea area and, gradually, of sea use plans for all problem areas – int. alia within VASAB & HELCOM activities, BaltSeaPlan project

7. Further development / improvement of procedures (SEA, crossborder consultation) – BaltSeaPlan project

8. Joint planning with Russia – East-West Window and continuation9. Etc., etc…


Implementation• Regardless of actual state of law, solutions of the plan will be

implemented as far as possible in daily activities of Maritime Office in Gdynia

• Full implementation requires adoption of improved law (Parliament - improved Acts, Minister of Infrastructure - ordinance)

This is realictic !! because:- acc. to Government timetable improvements of spatial planning

laws, incl. sea use planning to pass through Parliament by end of 2008 (beginning of 2009?)

- Concept of Spatial Development of State to include Polish sea space (for the first time)

- Synergies between various projects, EU pressure (Blue Book on EU integrated maritime policy)


Lessons learned

• We succeeded because- the team was multidisciplinary and engaged in parallel in a range of

planning processes in Poland (at national and regional level)- there was a relative richness of information (especially nature,

historical heritage)- there was a vision (even though unofficial) of the planned area- planning documents existed for all coastal communities- a wide range of stakeholders was involved before start of the

planning exercise itself

• Could be more successful if coastal communities better understood their stake in sea use planning

• The hardest part of the work was the operating on the 3-dimensional (in fact 4-dimensional: X, Y, Z and time) sea space and still insufficient data and information


Lessons learned (ctd)

• The longest part of the work was iteration and data collection• What surprised us most was the lack of spatial thinking among

many researchers – they had difficulties with transferring their knowledge into spatial terms

• We are particularly proud of:- producing the first sea use plan in Poland- making (hopefully) good use of the 4-dimensionality of sea space- using a mixture of the zoning, use allocation and regulative

approaches

• Next time we would reserve more time for the planning process• We recommend especially good pre-planning preparation

(production, collection of comprehensive environmental, economical, social etc. data)


Final remarks

• Comparing with the PlanCoast Handbook messages:– All the tested messages have found full confirmation (we have not

tested messages 8, 11 and partly 10)

• Existence of a guiding vision is of basic importance

• Development of a sea use plan requires a multidisciplinary and truly open-minded team

• Scientists dealing with maritime matters must learn to understand space

• Maybe special training of sea-use planners is required?


Thank you

lessons learned from the „west gdansk bay” pilot project

Documents

final meeting meeting

pilot sea

spatial planning of

sea use planning

gdanskfinal meeting

sea mammals

scope of sea spatial

sea use plans