Spatial planning

Portal for accessing a wide variety of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing and mapping related information of relevance to the RECOFI region to support decision-making regarding aquaculture development (e.g. site selection and zoning),  aquaculture practice and management (e.g. environmental Impacts of aquaculture), and multisectoral development and management that includes aquaculture (e.g. management of aquaculture together with fisheries).

Activities

RECOFI workshop on Spatial planning for Marine Capture Fisheries and Aquaculture

FAO/Regional Commission for Fisheries. 2011. Report of the Regional Technical Workshop on Spatial Planning for Marine Capture Fisheries and Aquaculture. Doha, the State of Qatar, 24–28 October 2010. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report. No. 961. Rome, FAO. 2011. 118p.
(www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2054e/i2054e00.pdf).

Technical presentations
The Secretariat presented technical presentations on current topics on spatial planning for marine capture fisheries and aquaculture. The presentations were flexible to allow for discussions and were developed to provide information to assist in developing the Regional Strategy. The presentations were on:

Country presentations
In preparation for the workshop, each RECOFI Member country was asked to prepare a one 20 minute presentation to summarize the following aspects: (1) the profile of their fisheries and aquaculture sectors; (2) one to three case studies where GIS and/or remote sensing have been used in relation to fisheries and/or aquaculture; (3) challenges, issues and opportunities for developing a GIS and remote sensing infrastructure to support the spatial planning strategy at national and regional level; and (4) a list of ongoing initiatives (i.e. ongoing or planned projects, studies, etc.) relevant to the scope of the workshop and the development of spatial planning strategy. During the preparation of this overview of country presentations, the Secretariat summarized all significant information presented in the original PowerPoint presentations. However, for a more complete summary additional supplementary information was extracted from FAOs Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profiles (www.fao.org/fishery/countryprofiles/search/en) and from the National Aquaculture Sector Overview Fact sheets (www.fao.org/fishery/naso/search/en). Original Power Point presentations as completed by participants are available below:

Working group presentations


Resources

  • GISFish. One stop site from which to obtain the global experience on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing and Mapping as applied to Fisheries and Aquaculture. The global experience provided by GISFish is captured in Issues, Publications, Activities, Training, Data and Tools, Contacts, Discussions, News and events. The mission for this site, as well as its overriding goal, is "Solving problems in inland fisheries and aquaculture using GIS, remote sensing and mapping".  (www.fao.org/fishery/gisfish).
  • National Aquaculture Sector Overview (NASO) map collection. Google maps showing the location of aquaculture sites and their characteristics at an administrative level (state, province, district, etc.) and in some cases even at an individual farm level depending on the degree of aquaculture development and the resources available to complete data collection form, and the level of clearance provided by the country experts (www.fao.org/fishery/naso-maps/naso-home/en)
  • FAO GeoNetwork: Portal for accessing Interactive Maps, GIS datasets, Satellite Imagery and Related Applications (www.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/main.home).