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June 2004 |
Administering the marine environment spatially
A background paper discussing the "Issues in Developing Marine SDI" by researchers from the University of Melbourne, was presented by the Workshop Chair. He highlighted the key environmental, social and economic factors and issues driving the development of marine SDI. Prof Williamson also pointed out that whilst access to spatial data aids in effective decision-making to achieve sustainable development, the majority of SDI initiatives stop at the land-sea interface. This encourages marine data to be held in various formats, at various accuracies within 'data silos'. He concluded by stressing the need to assess current systems in order to identify technical, legal and institutional arrangements hindering coordination and effective management of the marine environment. Workshop participants then broke into following three Working Groups:
WG1: Issues in administering the marine environment
WG2: Definition of marine SDI and marine cadastre
WG3: Administration of marine rights, restrictions and responsibilities
Some of the major points highlighted during the breakout session includes:
- Importance of including a marine component within the SDI policies as part of countries obligations to UNCLOS
- Cadastral data can be a subset of SDI
- SDI should facilitate access, management and sharing of spatial data at any jurisdictional/political levels
- Marine cadastre can include components of the land-based cadastre and must take the fuzzy nature of boundaries with 3D (volume) and 4D (temporal) nature of the interests
- Importance of collaboration between FIG, Commission 4 and PCGIAP, Working Group 3 (Cadastre) on marine issues
- Lack of a single organisation capable of coordinating issues on marine environment
- Importance of institutional reform and capacity building
- Marine SDI should relate to natural and administrative boundaries
The afternoon session of the second day consisted of a technical visit to the Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), the national petroleum company of Malaysia. Each working group on the third and final day gave a final report with resolutions prepared by the Resolution Working Group. The workshop concluded with a discussion and agreement by participants on five resolutions as summarised below:
Resolution 1 - Spatial Dimension of Administering the Marine Environment
The workshop recommends that all countries in the Asia-Pacific region with an extensive marine jurisdiction and administrative responsibilities be encouraged to include a marine dimension in their NSDI as part of their obligation to meeting their responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and further recommends that they cooperate with other countries to ensure technical, operational and policy consistency in the marine elements of NSDIs developed in the Asia-Pacific region.
Resolution 2 - PCGIAP-FIG Collaboration
Recognising the work program of WG3 of the PCGIAP on the spatial dimension of administering the marine environment and the work plan of FIG on marine cadastre and ocean governance through its Commissions 4 (Hydrographic Surveying) and 7 (Cadastre & Land Management), the workshop recommends that PCGIAP and FIG collaborate through their respective work plans on marine cadastre, marine SDI, marine administration systems and ocean governance and encourages the FIG to participate in the Marine Cadastre Template Project.
Resolution 3 - Defining the Spatial Dimension
Recognising that a range of terms are used to describe the spatial dimension of the administration of the marine environment including marine cadastre, marine SDI, marine GIS and marine administration systems, the workshop recommends that the term "marine administration system" (Fig 1) is adopted for the administration of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in the marine environment, with the spatial dimension facilitated by the Marine SDI. It recommends that a marine cadastre is defined as a management tool which spatially describes, visualises and realises defined boundaries and associated rights, restrictions and responsibilities in the marine environment as a data layer in a marine SDI, allowing them to be more effectively identified, administered and accessed.
Resolution 4 - Requirement for Further Development of Guidelines and Tools
Recognising the need for a marine component of an SDI and an associated marine administration system in order to support sustainable development, the workshop recommends that PCGIAP further investigates and develops guidelines and tools for administering the spatial dimension of the marine environment for Asia-Pacific.
Resolution 5 - Expression of Gratitude
The Workshop expressed its sincere gratitude to the Government of Malaysia, for the kind hospitality and gracious support. Further details regarding the outcomes of the workshop including the full report can be found at:
http://www.geom.unimelb.edu.au/maritime/PCGIAPWorkshop.htm
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