Marine Planning

Marine planning under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and Scotland's National Marine Plan 2015 provides the legal basis as it links marine planning with water quality, terrestrial planning and River Basin Management Plans. Its General Planning Principle (GEN 12) policy states that developments and activities should not result in deterioration of water bodies, and decision makers should consider impacts on shellfish waters, bathing waters and relevant River Basin management Plans. 

This furthers the current approach towards agriculture-coastal overlap as farming practices often impcat marine environment indirectly through river catchments. The NMP also includes GEN 15 and GEN 16 which require further alignment between marine plans, terrestrial development plans and other statutory/non-statutory plans. It brings land-sea planning together creating a policy hook for integrating agriculture, local development plans, river basin planning and marine planning. The NMP's GEN 19 is another principle which requires decisions to be based on sound evidence and in case of insufficient or inconclusive data, precautionary principle is to be employed. This supports EGCP recommendations put forth in the SOTC about better local monitoring of agricultural runoff, coastal water quality and cumulative land-sea impacts.