Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Maritime Spatial Planning has arrived at Europe, first as an idea, after as a directive and finally as a plan. In 2022, most Member States, Portugal included, have plans in place, but the challenge now lies in delivering social cohesion, economic growth, and sustainable development. In an era of resource extraction, we must ensure that our communities and populations at the Land-Sea Interface (LSI) see their ecosystems preserved and their life improved by the maritime and coastal activities they support. However, there is a lack of studies incorporating spatial information on the social and ecological dynamics at the LSI. I believe the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework, may be used to address this issue. The SES concept aims to merge the human and ecological systems effort towards sustainability. This work adapts a methodology used in the Mediterranean Coast to explore how coastal-marine areas in the Portuguese Mainland Subdivision differ in socioeconomic and marine environmental characteristics. The outputs of this work, Marine Socio-Ecological Categories mapped along the coast, show contrasting ecological and societal conditions across the coastal municipalities and are valuable to understanding how different conditions may be dealt with in regional and national contexts in future management and planning policies. Mapping socio-ecological systems aids sustainable economic development, but further research is needed to improve the categorization. This study shows that there is no land-sea divide as these complex systems are closely interlinked, the connections between both systems and their socioeconomic impacts should be reflected in the existent policy framework.

Presenters

Maria Da Luz Fernandes
Researcher (PhD), Department of Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, GOVCOPP, University of Aveiro, Portugal