Evidence synthesis to inform monitoring and evaluation of marine spatial management in the UK

Given the economic, social and environmental value of the marine environment it makes sense to manage it in a way that ensures long term sustainability of both ecosystems and human uses. We can only do this if we understand the impact that human activities and management practises have on marine systems, including people.
Spatial management measures such as fishery closures, marine protected areas and marine plans have emerged as a core component of the UK's marine management portfolio. In essence, spatial management aims to incorporate the diversity of human uses, consider the compatibility of different activities, and balance use with the impacts of these activities on biodiversity and people. Yet despite the extensive use of spatial management, substantial gaps in understanding exist regarding how to monitor the impacts of spatial management measures and evaluate their effectiveness across environmental, social and economic outcomes.

Our research aims to systematically bring together the available evidence on existing and emerging environmental, social and economic techniques for monitoring the effects of spatial management measures and evaluating their effectiveness. In particular we will focus on examples from countries with a coastline and in a similar socio-economic and political context to the UK. By clearly and transparently describing this evidence, we will be able to explore understanding surrounding methods for how to monitor and evaluate spatial management measures, and inform the development of guidelines and future monitoring and evaluation practises across the UK.

Our findings, in the form of a database, will be published alongside an article in the open-access journal Environmental Evidence, providing a highly accessible, freely available summary of the evidence. We will also produce a one-page policy summary, to disseminate our results to decision-makers, and a set of guidelines for use to facilitate application of our database. By making these outputs publicly available and easy to use we will give our work a lasting legacy beyond the life of the project. For example, researchers will be able to easily update and build on our database as desired or design research to fill evidence gaps, and decision-makers will be able to easily locate evidence of relevance to inform their monitoring and management activities. We will involve key stakeholders through our Stakeholder Group in the design of our project and discuss our results with them to ensure they are used to help inform spatial management in the UK.

The evidence base collated within this project is anticipated to benefit a wide range of sectors and users of the marine environment, as well as nature conservation and academic research. These benefits will extend beyond the UK to international policy audiences facing similar challenges in determining the impact of their spatial management activities. Our extended review team demonstrates the interdisciplinarity nature of this project being composed of researchers specialising in marine and fisheries management from environmental, social, economic and policy perspectives based across academic and charitable institutions. Our existing Stakeholder Group attests to the value of this project with support from: the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Marine Scotland Science (MSS), Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs), and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). We will seek to extend our Stakeholder Group to incorporate all of the UK Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies during the project programme.

Keywords: evaluation methods; fishery closure; marine spatial management; marine protected area; marine spatial plan; monitoring methods; systematic map

By directly informing many high-level, widely identified evidence needs around monitoring and assessment of marine spatial management, this project offers the potential for substantial impact across multiple institutions within UK government and devolved administration. The project has been developed in conjunction with key end-users, specifically to meet their stated evidence needs, and the project will continue to involve them throughout thereby ensuring the utility, direct applicability, and ultimately the impact of associated outputs. Not least, the coding framework, which will govern the data extracted, will be co-created in workshop 1 to ensure it captures information directly relevant to stakeholder needs (See section 4 of our Case for Support).

The systematic map produced will have three main impacts: (1) it will inform the evolution of policy around monitoring and evaluation processes; (2) it will greatly reduce the time required to assess monitoring and evaluation options for a given management situation; and (3) it will clearly identify gaps in knowledge where current methods cannot fulfil evidence needs, thus informing priorities for future research. The process of undertaking this research project will also expand capacity in systematic mapping, particular within the Extended Review Team, and it will raise awareness of the mapping process with our stakeholders. The systematic map will also benefit the academic community by synthesising a large body of research. In doing so it should reduce redundancy in future research, as well as focusing attention on key areas in need of primary research.

The systematic map will present end-users with a highly accessible summary of the evidence base related to methods for monitoring and evaluating spatial management measures and an interactive way of examining this evidence. The systematic map will facilitate an improved understanding of methods for monitoring the impacts of spatial management measures on people, nature and the environment. It will thus help decision-makers decide which methods could be used in gathering evidence, how evaluations might be undertaken and what data would be required to inform evaluations. It will provide greater understanding of where opportunities for adoption of new techniques and development of future policy and guidance around those technologies may exist, which could lead to enhanced data collection. It will support efforts to integrate monitoring and evaluation processes across multiple programs, and in doing so should contribute to resource saving. The map should also support enhanced evaluations of the effectiveness of spatial management measures at delivering intended outcomes and thus contribute to more effective adaptive management.

Awareness of our systematic map and findings, and thus enhancement of the reach of impact, will be communicated by publishing our work in the open access journal Environmental Evidence and through our institutional press offices, policy network (including but also extending beyond our Stakeholder Group) and professional academic networks. Evidence gaps identified may also be incorporated into published evidence gaps, such as those produced by the Marine Management Organisation and Marine Scotland, as appropriate.