Sustainable management of coastal areas: Salmon farm locations and environmental status

This project studies the complex decision-making system for localization of aquaculture in Norwegian coastal areas, and how decisions on salmon farm location align with goals of enhanced environmental sustainability. The project will produce novel knowledge on how political, socio-economic, institutional, and legal factors cause regional variation in decision-making outcomes, inother words, explain variation in alignment between environmental sustainability and localization decisions. To do this, the project utilises already produced large-scale quantitative mapping of the environmental status of local salmon farming areas and combine this with a selection of case studies. The case-studies will be qualitative and compare decisions on localization accross regions and municipalities. Step one, the project will investigate the thorough spatial mapping of environmental status and the development of aquaculture sites within counties. Social and natural scientists collaborate to merge these data and utilize geographical information system software to construct an extensive map portal for analysing them. Second step is a legal analysis of how the complex decision-making system for localization affects outcomes. Based on step one and two, we select case-studies (five from each of the five larger coastal counties) for analysis. We first examine three types of decisions on localisation, studying variation within and between counties and municipalities. Second, we examine and explain alignment between localization decisions and environmental status. The aim is to advance knowledge on how the fragmented, multi-level and multi-sectoral decision-making system for aquaculture localization in Norway may hamper or promote sustainability goals. Against this background, we consider the implications of these insights for achieving environmentally sustainable use and management of coastal areas. In 2023 we arranged a kick-off meeting with our project partners, discussing various approaches and explanatory factors to include in the case studies. The kick-off meeting revealed great interest in discussing these issues among the partners and in November this year we shall arrange a similar meeting of the partners in the Location-project. A pilot case study of positions on aquaculture expansion in ten municipalities found that local dependency on aquaculture cornerstone companies explains the bulk of variation in municipal positions. Other findings are that changes in the aquaculture corporate structure (e.g. fusions and dismantling local ownership), may enhance the impact of environmental concerns in municipal positions on aquaculture growth, and that larger municipalities tend to be more negative to aquaculture expansion even when environmental problems are low. (The manuscrip has submitted for peer review with Aquaculture.)

This project studies the complex decision-making system for localization of aquaculture in Norwegian coastal areas, and how decisions on salmon farm location align with goals of enhanced environmental sustainability. The project will produce novel knowledge on how political, socio-economic, institutional, and legal factors cause regional variation in decision-making outcomes, and explain variation in alignment between environmental sustainability and localization decisions across municipalities and county regions. To pursue this objective, the project combines large-scale quantitative mapping of the environmental status of local salmon farming areas with a selection of in-depth, qualitative, and comparative case studies of localization decisions. First, the project will conduct a thorough spatial mapping of environmental status and the development of aquaculture sites within counties. We merge the data and utilize geographical information system software to construct an extensive map portal for efficient analysis and assessment. Second, it engage in legal analysis of how the complex decision-making system for localization affects outcomes. Third, based on the mapping of environmental status and sites, we select 25 case-studies (five from each of the five larger coastal counties) for in-depth analysis. Here, we approach our research questions through an analytical framework based on a multi-level governance approach. We first examine three types of decisions on localisation, studying variation within and between counties and municipalities. Second, we examine and explain alignment between localization decisions and environmental status, to advance knowledge on how the fragmented, multi-level and multi-sectoral decision-making system for aquaculture localization in Norway may hamper or promote sustainability goals. Against this background, we consider the implications of these insights for achieving environmentally sustainable use and management of coastal areas.