An Ocean in Balance: Integrating marine data, spatial planning and community voices for just decision-making in offshore energy

Offshore wind is central to achieving net-zero targets, yet rapid expansion across the Greater North Sea Basin raises important questions about how decisions are made and who benefits. Existing spatial planning approaches often prioritise technical or economic optimisation, overlooking local knowledge and the interconnections between marine and coastal systems.

This PhD will examine whether current planning processes are fit for purpose to support just and inclusive offshore energy development. The project will explore how emerging marine environmental data, spatial planning tools, and stakeholder engagement approaches can be combined to improve decision-making for offshore wind.

 This project will explore questions within the context of the Greater North Sea Basin, around:

1. The applicability of spatial planning tools to inform decisions around the siting of offshore wind farms.
2. The role of newly emerging data on marine systems for informing decisions around wind farm siting.
3. The extent to which current spatial planning processes capture links between the marine and terrestrial system, both directly at landfall and indirectly through links to coastal communities and environments.
4. How stakeholder engagement processes can be better incorporated in spatial planning approaches to move from economically optimal deployment to one that benefits coastal communities.
5. How impacts and acceptability of wind farms vary with socio-economic context across the Greater North Sea Basin.

The research supports the project Decision Support Tools for Spatial Planning and Cumulative Effects Assessment of Offshore Wind in the Greater North Sea. Opportunities for collaboration with UK and European partners are anticipated.