Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente (Feb 2018)
Where are the Data Needed for Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) in Brazil? Analysis of Marine Data Repositories and Geospatial Data Gaps for the Generation of Descriptors for MSP in Southern Brazil
Abstract
Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas. In Brazil it has started in 2011, but with little improvements. One of the first steps for MSP is the assessment of data on environmental and human activities, as well as data gaps identification. This article uses a list of descriptors required for MSP, analyzes the availability of data in national and international data repositories, and shows geospatial data gaps in the southern Brazilian Economic-Exclusive Zone (EEZ). The 145 descriptors listed were related to themes available in the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) to assess the relevance of each theme for MSP. The INSPIRE themes contribute to 85% of the MSP descriptors and the most relevant themes are management, restriction and regulation zones, sea regions, production and industrial facilities, protected sites and habitats and biotopes. The Brazilian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE, in Portuguese) contributes with only five of the 145 descriptors. The National Oceanographic Data Bank (BNDO, in Portuguese) has a structure that inhibits its use as a platform for data query, being only a repository. The Kernel Density Estimator (KDE) was used to assess geospatial data gaps in the studied area. The available data have, in general, greater concentration on the internal continental shelf (up to 50 m), with distinctive gaps in each theme. It is important to advance in the Brazilian MSP, even with the problems of scarcity, data dispersion or lack of data. Adaptations and efforts are needed to make possible the marine data aggregation at INDE. Government needs to advance in MSP and encourage institutions to increase the marine data feeding in national and international repositories, qualifying the process and ensuring the possibility of incorporating the best scientific information available to MSP.
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