(NEWS) Maritime Spatial Planning Course for Professionals Concludes at WMU

November

2013

Maritime Spatial Planning Course for Professionals Concludes at WMU

The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) - Course for Professionals concluded at WMU 28-29 October. Twenty participants, most of whom are planning professionals in their respective countries, joined the course from around the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) representing eight countries. The objectives of the course were to enhance the theoretical and practical proficiency of current and future professionals to deal with the specific requirements of MSP in the BSR, and to bring maritime spatial planners together to establish a professional network.

The course commenced on 9 September via distance learning and the first course meeting took place in Reda, Poland 23-25 September. After meeting in Poland, the students focused on group work via distance learning with a fictional planning case assignment prepared by WMU's Marine Environmental Research (MER) group. Associate Academic Dean, Patrick Donner, welcomed the group to WMU on 28 October where each student group presented their results and the final seminar took place concentrating on current projects and developments of MSP in the Baltic Sea Region. In addition, WMU Professor Larry Hildebrand, the WMU Canadian Chair, gave a presentation regarding Canada’s perspective on Marine Spatial Planning.

The course was delivered in cooperation with Maritime Institute in Gdansk, Åbo Akademi University, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Gothenburg University, Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment VASAB-HELCOM MSP Working Group, the Nordic Network for Marine Inventories and Modeling, the Baltic University Programme, and WMU. The planning phase of the course was financed by the Swedish Institute.

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