On 21st November 2025, MSPglobal 3.0 held its first of three online workshops to consult experts on the co-development of a new data toolbox on cumulative impact assessment for marine spatial planning. A total of 32 experts in data, modelling, marine conservation, MSP and more joined the workshop to discuss a first draft of the data toolbox structure and content.
The use of cumulative impact assessment (CIA) data and tools supports analyses of the combined impacts on marine ecosystems, and thus, their integration is a fundamental milestone for marine spatial planning (MSP) initiatives. However, numerous countries are yet to develop such a framework due to the lack of awareness, expertise, human and/or financial resources.
To address this, MSPglobal 3.0 is in the process of producing a new data toolbox to provide global guidance on the use of CIA for MSP. This publication aims to make CIA more accessible to any MSP practitioner. Therefore, it will not be a detailed technical cookbook but rather contain easy-to-follow explanations and instructions, while being complete and thorough in covering important aspects of CIA for MSP. Besides, as done with the MSPglobal data toolboxes on spatial data infratsructure and ocean observations, this toolbox will also be available in an online format, which can be easily updated anytime.
Co-developing a data toolbox on cumulative impact assessment for MSP
The first step towards producing the new data toolbox was an extensive global expert mapping, followed by the first online workshop in which a draft structure and the potential content were discussed with subject-matter experts. There were also four expert interventions to present concepts and methods of CIA (Lena Bergström, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), the Tools4MSP Geoplatform (Stefano Menegon, CNR-ISMAR, Italy), the HELCOM Spatial Pressure and Assessment tool (Juuso Haapaniemi & Aurelia Care, HELCOM Secretariat, Finland) and CIA approaches in PLASMAR+ (Andrej Abramic, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).
After these presentations laid more groundwork, it was time to dive deeper into the potential content of the toolbox, which was discussed via a digital whiteboard as participants shared their ideas and made suggestions. In the coming weeks, the MSPglobal team will refine the proposed structure and contents of the data toolbox until the next online workshops taking place on 13th January and 26th March.
RELATED LINKS:
- MSPglobal Data Toolbox Volume 1 – How to develop a Spatial Data Infrastructure for Marine Spatial Planning
- Flyer about the MSPglobal Data Toolbox Volume 1 – How to use Spatial Data Infrastructure for Marine Spatial Planning
- MSPglobal Data Toolbox Volume 2 – How to use Ocean Observations for Marine Spatial Planning
- Flyer about the MSPglobal Data Toolbox Volume 2 – How to use Ocean Observations for Marine Spatial Planning
CONTACT:
MSPglobal.comm@unesco.org