Identifying evidence needs for modelling and valuing aquaculture potential in marine plan areas.
With the global population expected to rise to 9.6 billion by 2050, there is increasing pressure for aquaculture to meet the rising demand, while maintaining sustainability and food security standards. However, marine management plans for England that consider aquaculture are still at an early stage of development. Existing models are limited by the lack of supporting evidence and currently do not offer sufficient support to decision-making. Furthermore, the socio-economic and environmental trade-offs of the different types of aquaculture and their associated value are not currently considered in marine planning and licensing.
The purpose of this placement is to create the conditions for the improvement of existing models, by valuing the range of positive and negative impacts of aquaculture, as well as reviewing existing evidence needs, from a multidisciplinary perspective and thus support sustainable aquaculture development. The candidate will collaborate with the Marine Management Organisation to answer to marine planning evidence needs and improve decision-making tools. The placement will define priority research areas where evidence is needed. The valuation analysis of the trade-offs, of different types of aquaculture, will allow for future models to identify which systems constitute an added-value in different environmental and socio-economic contexts.
Introduction to Placement - presentation