Anne Marie O’Hagan

A Review of Beach Bye-Law Usage in Supporting Coastal Management in Ireland

Coastal areas are commonly the focus of a range of human activities and uses. Beaches are one example of multi-use coastal environments, accommodating activities linked to leisure and recreation, amenity, conservation and business, often simultaneously. Ireland is no different in this regard, as its beach resources provide a range of goods and services of societal value. Ireland has 16 coastal counties and their associated local authorities have a beach management remit, a role that can present a number of challenges. The use of beach bye-laws is one option to support management of beach environments by local authorities. Local authority personnel tasked with beach management from each coastal local authority were surveyed to assess the actual and potential role of beach bye-laws in contributing to more effective management of beach environments and to broader coastal management. Usage of beach bye-laws varied across local authority areas and evidence suggested that the efficacy, use, and implementation of beach bye-laws differed from county to county. Beach bye-laws offer potential but interaction with other initiatives as part of a wider program for coastal management may yield improved results.

Shaping Blue Growth: Social Sciences at the Nexus Between Marine Renewables and Energy Policy

The development of the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) industry is part of the EC Blue Growth Strategy. It brings together a range of relationships across people, sea, and energy, from developers to local communities and policymakers. This calls for diverse approaches, moving beyond an oppositional mindset to one that can establish an inclusive community around MRE development. Ownership of the marine environment is a legal issue, but MRE devices operate within a cultural and emotional sense of place. Early, sustained community engagement and advocacy is crucial to developing an industry whose impacts are likely to be felt before its social benefits materialise. Crucially, local communities could be supported by Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research in creating new mythologies and imaginaries through which MRE technologies become an integral part of their culture, as well as part of their biophysical environment. A complex physical, political, and legal environment provides the context for these new marine energy technologies, and its development provides opportunities for SSH research to address issues around the sea and to integrate into the design of new marine energy seascapes.

Planning and Management Frameworks for Renewable Ocean Energy

Renewable ocean energy has huge potential to contribute to addressing both climate change and energy security concerns. To realise this potential, it is necessary to have planning and management frameworks that facilitate development of commercial-scale marine renewable energy farms, which harvest offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy. The primary focus of this chapter is ocean energy, namely wave and tidal sources. Currently, consenting and legal processes are often cited as a barrier to efficient and expedient deployment of devices in many locations internationally. This can create high levels of “regulatory risk” which can, in turn, have detrimental consequences for project development timelines and budgets as well as wider negative influence on project investors and financiers. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) is a relatively new approach to analysing and allocating parts of marine spaces for specific uses or objectives in order to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives. MSP does not always result in ocean zoning but instead involves integrated approaches to prioritising uses and activities. As a process, MSP is ecosystem-based, integrated, adaptive, strategic, and participatory—stakeholders are actively engaged in the process. It does not replace single-sector planning or management, but it has a number of advantages that may benefit the development of the renewable ocean energy sector. It can provide greater certainty to the private sector in planning new investments and should reduce conflicts between incompatible users and activities. It should also promote more efficient use of marine resources and space, indicate opportunities for coexistence of activities, and facilitate the implementation of a streamlined permitting process for marine activities. This chapter outlines the planning and management frameworks in place for renewable ocean energy in countries that collaborate through the International Energy Agency’s Ocean Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme around the world. A particular emphasis is placed on MSP and how it influences the planning of energy activities currently or how it will influence future ocean energy activity. Implementation of MSP varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and can take many different forms. This chapter provides an overview of how the requirements of the ocean energy sector are taken into account when designing marine planning systems, how scientific information is reflected in the process, and the tools used to implement MSP. It also identifies how possible or currently experienced conflicts between different sectors or users are managed. The chapter concludes with a section on the key factors that limit implementation of MSP.