Participatory Design of Multi-Use Platforms at Sea

Abstract

European oceans are subject to rapid development. New activities such as aquaculture and ocean energy have gained importance. This triggers interest in "multi-use platforms at sea" (MUPS), i.e., areas at sea in which different activities are combined. MUPS are complex features with regards to technology, governance, and financial, socioeconomic, and environmental aspects. To identify realistic and sustainable solutions and designs for MUPS, the MERMAID project applied a participatory design process (PDP) involving a range of stakeholders representing companies, authorities, researchers, and NGOs. This paper evaluates if and how the participatory design process contributed to the design of multi-use platforms. It is based on interviews with the managers of the case study sites and a questionnaire administered to all stakeholders participating in the PDP workshops. Analyzing the four case studies, we conclude that the participatory design process has had a valuable contribution to the development of the four different designs of MUPS, even though the preconditions for carrying out a participatory design process differed between sites. In all four cases, the process has been beneficial in generating new and shared knowledge. It brought new design issues to the table and increased knowledge and understanding among the different stakeholders.

A Novel Hybrid Wind-Wave Energy Converter for Jacket-Frame Substructures

“…In this context, multipurpose platforms have been suggested as a sustainable means of exploitation of certain maritime resources, which are usually in the same area [8][9][10][11]-e.g., marine renewable energies (MREs), food resources (fisheries and aquaculture), maritime transport and leisure, among others. On the basis of the strong synergies between offshore wind and wave energy [12][13][14], hybrid wind-wave systems have been proposed as one of the most promising types of multipurpose platforms [15].…”

Discussing and Analyzing “Maritime Cohesion” in MSP, to Achieve Sustainability in the Marine Realm

“…There is, also, a subjective understanding and different considerations about opportunities or risks. The dilemma between high productivity and an ecosystem-based approach with minimized risks is also evident and there is often a lack of political will [20,35] or political consensus to promote multiple ocean uses, often despite the strong interest of the representatives of the research community [22]. Furthermore, public acceptance and political will are rather localized depending on the specific sectors (renewable energy, wind farms, marine aquaculture) which gives a head start to Northern in relation to Southern Europe, where there are many traditional sectors involved that might not receive sufficient political support.…”

“…In addition, different social obstacles have been reported. For example, there is the risk for MUP developments to be in conflict with both the local fishing community, which is a traditionally significant stakeholder in the marine realm, and the commercial and tourism maritime routes [20]. Of course, conflicts largely depend on the specific combination of activities in a multi-use setting and also on their specific vertical location in the marine water column.…”

“…The "multi-use concept" is encountered in different forms in the literature. The prevailing ones are a: the well-known multi-use platforms (MUP) [3,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and b: the multi-use of space (MUS) [15,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31], meant as the combination of a series of marine industry sectors aiming to produce complementarities resulting in mutual benefits and surplus, through co-location and common infrastructure but without a common platform.…”

The Use of MIVES as a Sustainability Assessment MCDM Method for Architecture and Civil Engineering Applications

“…On the other hand, some sustainability assessment studies and research focus on the post occupancy period like Post Occupancy Evaluations [43], others focus on data from participatory processes [44,45] and other studies are advancing in order to incorporate both [46]. All the aforementioned tools have contributed to advance towards a more sustainable construction sector and to raise awareness of this issue within the sector [9].…”