Countries with coastlines have particularly valuable renewable energy resources in the form of tides, currents, waves, and offshore wind. In the new future, marine renewable energy installations (MREIs) are likely to become a large part of the future energy mix worldwide. The potential to gather energy from the sea has recently seen increasing interest in several nations. Although technology to harness wave energy still lags behind that of wind and tidal generation, it seems to have the potential to contribute significantly to global energy production. As this develops, it is likely to result in further transformation of our coastal seas. Coastal zones, however, are already under significant pressure from human activity as a result of their high biological productivity and accessibility. Therefore, the impacts of wave energy development must be considered in the context of adding to those existing pressures.

We also highlight the need to accelerate the implementation of spatial planning decision support tools in the context of the “ecosystem approach” (EA) to management.

Concerning the marine realm, in fact, the integration of the resource planning has become a need after the many failures of the traditional sectoral, single-issue management. Fisheries collapse, threats to marine biodiversity, and global climate change effects are all elements that require a greater integration in marine resource management and policies. In such a context, only knowledge-based spatial planning procedures will support sounder policies, enabling to better allocate spatially and temporally human activities in marine areas and to achieve the ecological sustainability.

We invite authors to contribute original as well as review articles. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Elements of ecological impacts due to the presence of marine renewable energy installations (MREIs) based on experimental studies
• Definition of impact assessment methodological approaches which are transferable and scalable across sites allowing also the quantification of the involved uncertainties
• Spatial planning frameworks to support the optimal siting of marine renewable energy installations (MREIs)
• Positive environmental impacts associated with the presence of MREIs
• Risk assessment methods as support for planning MREIs
• Experiences with mitigation activities, marine policy integrations
• Environmental monitoring of pilot- or full-scale MREIs

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