The centrality of tenure: analysing the role of spatial data in coastal and marine management in Ireland

Abstract

With its lengthy coastline which borders a vast marine space, Ireland’s coastal and marine environment is currently undergoing a rapid sea change in terms of its governance and administration. Driven by a significant increase in offshore renewable energy developments and greater exploitation of the maritime space for scientific and economic purposes, the State is making many of these changes primarily, in order to extend the terrestrial coastal planning system to encompass the nearshore (a newly defined marine space covering 3nm seaward from High Water Mark (HWM)), and to streamline the administration of maritime consent authorisation process within offshore areas. Evidently, many of the measures being introduced are linked to the compliance requirements of environmental and planning regimes (framed in particular, by regulatory requirements such as Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) 2008/56/EC and the Marine Spatial Planning Directive (MSP) 2014/89/EU among others), and relate to an increased need to meet sustainable coastal/marine environmental targets. Concurrently, there is a growing realisation that all coastal and marine legal and regulatory interests must now seamlessly traverse the land/sea interface, so that such management processes at the very least, will now mirror and integrate with the equivalent systems that are currently available in terrestrial settings.

Informed by the challenges and opportunities presented by this rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, this study investigates, through the identification of best practices worldwide, the centrality of tenure within this coastal and marine management paradigm and establishes the significance of the HWM as a physical, administrative and legal land/sea boundary. With a focus on the Irish context, this investigation of authoritative coastline spatial data/mapping reveals that where official (legal) delineation of the coastline is outdated, the securing of legal interests, and the fulfilment of administrative and regulatory coastal and marine obligations are significantly impacted. Through the interrogation of spatial datasets relating to a range of illustrative case study locations and applications, this study illustrates how such obsolete mapping can significantly hinder an integrative approach to coastal and marine management. At its conclusion, though the interrogation of spatial data/mapping, this study seeks to recommend steps to achieve ‘fit-for-purpose’ spatial data management that facilitates a seamless ‘whole of government’ coastal and marine management framework – one that situates spatial data at its core.

Date of Award	Sept 2024
Original language	English
Supervisor	Andrew Cooper (Supervisor) & Adrian Moore (Supervisor)