Sea space has been undergoing a profound transformation. Although it retains its inspirational function in arts, literature and philosophy, it has been gaining new anthropogenic dimensions in economics and urban planning as a source of satisfying human needs i.e. the provision of harmony, beauty, off-shore energy, and biotech substances. Therefore, in this paper marine space is analyzed from a multidimensional perspective of urban planning, economics, and literature. Maritime space has been a subject of literature from its inception. Without attempting to give an overview of the vast topic, the paper discusses the pronounced presence of sea space in the earliest Western literary sources, such as the Bible and Anglo-Saxon poetry. As a striking case study, Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick is analyzed with its complex, dynamic notion of maritime space. Aditionally, the importance of the shore as locus amoenus in a short story by the contemporary writer Maxim D. Shrayer is examined. This notion of locus amoenus is also present in the research related to urban planning. Maritime space attracts people to locate nearby. Development is created as a response to these demands. Both urban planning and economics underline, however, a need of sustainable development of this space. This is crucial in order to secure its positive influence on human well-being in the long run. The three disciplines also point out that maritime space remains in the process of continuous creation and re-development in course of adding new functional and axiological ties between humans and the seas and oceans. Thus, nowadays maritime space covers both sea and terrestrial gateways servicing the sea and the key constituting factor is provided by human beings (homo maritimus) through their economic, social or emotional bond to the sea.

The purpose of the paper is to develop the first land-sea space typology on the basis of key characteristics of its economic use in the Polish conditions. Based on the criterion of exploitation of marine areas and significance of marine economy sectors in coastal municipalities, the following types of marine space have been distinguished: A (areas of particular planning concern for the regions of high intensity of activities both at the land and sea), B (areas of a chance for diversification of economic development based on ecosystem services and abiotic marine areas), W (areas associated with unused inland potential), Z (areas of low intensity of economic land-sea links), and G (areas where the land-sea interaction do not constitute a significant mechanism of spatial development), as well as three intermediate types: AB, WZ i BZ. The paper analyses both the benefits such as taking into account local characteristics and intensity of economic exploitation of the land and the sea, and the challenges of the methodology to be further developed (data limitations, the problem of determining a distance for interactions). The conclusions explain how maritime space typology based on economic land–sea interaction may influence soft space planning for maritime areas.

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This Editorial provides a framework for the entire volume of Europa XXI devoted to spatial development at sea and at the land-sea interface. It explains why conscious management of marine space is necessary, the benefits that it might provide, and the governance regimes that can be used. It discusses and compares maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management as means of securing spatial order at sea and at the land-sea interface. Finally, it links together the remaining articles by explaining their added value in relation to one another; and their mutual relations.Keywords: maritime space, maritime spatial development, maritime spatial planning, spatial order at sea and on the coast.