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The literature on ocean energy has, to date, largely focussed on technical, environmental, and, increasingly, social and political aspects. Legal and regulatory factors have received far less attention, despite their importance in supporting this new technology and ensuring its sustainable development. Building on the social sciences research agenda developed by the International network for Social Studies of Marine Energy (ISSMER) and published in Energy Policy, a complementary agenda for legal research linked to ocean energy was set out. Key directions for future research structured around the core themes of marine governance: (i) international law; (ii) environmental impacts; (iii) rights and ownership; (iv) consenting processes; and (v) management of marine space and resources were identified.

We report dynamic changes in the priorities for strategic risks faced by international water utilities over a 10 year period, as cited by managers responsible for managing them. A content analysis of interviews with three cohorts of risk managers in the water sector was undertaken. Interviews probed the focus risk managers' were giving to strategic risks within utilities, as well as specific questions on risk analysis tools (2005); risk management cultures (2011) and the integration of risk management with corporate decision-making (2015). The coding frequency of strategic (business, enterprise, corporate) risk terms from 18 structured interviews (2005) and 28 semi-structured interviews (12 in 2011; 16 in 2015) was used to appraise changes in the perceived importance of strategic risks within the sector. The aggregated coding frequency across the study period, and changes in the frequency of strategic risks cited at three interview periods identified infrastructure assets as the most significant risk over the period and suggests an emergence of extrinsic risk over time. Extended interviews with three utility risk managers (2016) from the UK, Canada and the US were then used to contextualise the findings. This research supports the ongoing focus on infrastructure resilience and the increasing prevalence of extrinsic risk within the water sector, as reported by the insurance sector and by water research organisations. The extended interviews provided insight into how strategic risks are now driving the implementation agenda within utilities, and into how utilities can secure tangible business value from proactive risk governance. Strategic external risks affecting the sector are on the rise, involve more players and are less controllable from within a utility's own organisational boundaries. Proportionate risk management processes and structures provide oversight and assurance, whilst allowing a focus on the tangible business value that comes from managing strategic risks well.

The water utility sector is subject to stringent legislation, seeking to address both the evolution of practices within the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, and the safeguarding of environmental protection, and which is informed by stakeholder views. Growing public environmental awareness is balanced by fair apportionment of liability within-sector. This highly complex and dynamic context poses challenges for water utilities seeking to manage the diverse chemicals arising from disparate sources reaching Wastewater Treatment Plants, including residential, commercial, and industrial points of origin, and diffuse sources including agricultural and hard surface water run-off. Effluents contain broad ranges of organic and inorganic compounds, herbicides, pesticides, phosphorus, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals of emerging concern. These potential pollutants can be in dissolved form, or arise in association with organic matter, the associated risks posing significant environmental challenges. This paper examines how the adoption of new Big Data tools and computational technologies can offer great advantage to the water utility sector in addressing this challenge. Big Data approaches facilitate improved understanding and insight of these challenges, by industry, regulator, and public alike. We discuss how Big Data approaches can be used to improve the outputs of tools currently in use by the water industry, such as SAGIS (Source Apportionment GIS system), helping to reveal new relationships between chemicals, the environment, and human health, and in turn provide better understanding of contaminants in wastewater (origin, pathways, and persistence). We highlight how the sector can draw upon Big Data tools to add value to legacy datasets, such as the Chemicals Investigation Programme in the UK, combined with contemporary data sources, extending the lifespan of data, focusing monitoring strategies, and helping users adapt and plan more efficiently. Despite the relative maturity of the Big Data technology and adoption in many wider sectors, uptake within the water utility sector remains limited to date. By contrast with the extensive range of applications of Big Data in in other sectors, highlight is drawn to how improvements are required to achieve the full potential of this technology in the water utility industry.

Proponents of marine renewable energy worldwide highlight that regulatory and consenting procedures are a significant barrier to the upscaling of infrastructure required to transform the energy generation sector. Uncertainties about the cumulative effects of marine renewable energy developments cause substantial delays during the consenting process, which are exacerbated by the lack of clarity about how to assess cumulative effects. These obstacles have contributed to perceptions that this essential emerging industry receives disproportionate scrutiny relative to established maritime activities. However, alongside legislated targets to reduce carbon emissions, there are legal obligations to protect, maintain and improve the condition of the marine environment. As the imperative to halt the decline in the condition of the environment increases, so expectations of cumulative impact assessments grow and the risk of consenting delays persists. To investigate how robust current cumulative impact assessment practise is, a novel evaluation framework was developed and applied to Environmental Statements of the world's largest offshore wind farms, currently in United Kingdom waters. The framework was designed to evaluate cumulative impact assessments relative to the information needs of decision-makers tasked with managing cumulative effects. We found that current practise does not meet those needs, that there is dissonance between science and practise, and problematic variability between assessments was observed. Straightforward recommendations for improved practise are provided, which if implemented may ease the perceived regulatory burden by clarifying practise. We also highlight additional steps that could enable project-led cumulative impact assessments to better support regional marine management. The results and recommendations will be of interest to countries worldwide where marine renewable energy is emerging alongside ecosystem-approach and marine spatial planning aspirations.

The current shift toward “soft” forms of coastal defense as means of adapting to future sea level rise requires careful communication and consultation if they are to gain widespread public acceptance. For this to be achieved then coastal managers must improve the manner in which they communicate with stakeholders and members of the public. One possible solution may be through the application of landscape visualization techniques to illustrate how new policies or management interventions may shape the coast. This article investigates the potential role of such methods in participatory coastal management. Using interviews with coastal managers, the potential application of visualization techniques in coastal management processes are explored in detail. The findings suggest that while a number of possible roles for visualization techniques exist, there is an urgent need for practical testing and evaluation of the technology in participatory decision-making processes.

Coastal management information is frequently communicated to stakeholders and the public through complicated management documents and engineering plans. With the recognition that public involvement in coastal decision-making processes should be widened have come calls to develop new techniques to communicate complicated coastal information. Using Virtual Reality Geographical Information Systems and visualization packages, such information may be presented using formats more suitable for public consultation and information dissemination exercises than those currently employed. Using a site on the north Norfolk coast of England, an integrated Geographical Information Systems based methodology is presented that allows the visualization of proposed coastal management interventions. Visualizations have been produced that can be published in traditional paper-based management documents, or electronically. The different visualizations are compared and the technical issues surrounding their use discussed. It is a...

A key requirement for effective coastal zone management is good knowledge and prediction of land erosion rates due to encroachment of the sea. However, in addition to demarcation of the hazard through modelling and mapping, a policy of risk mitigation necessitates significant attention should also be addressed to communicating the transient behaviour of the predictions and associated uncertainty. With climate change and sea level rise implying that historical rates of change may not be a reliable guide for the future, enhanced visualisation of the evolving coastline has the potential to improve awareness of this changing risk. This visual content is developed by linking scientific modelling with the transformation of digital elevation models, and then using GIS to integrate other spatiotemporal content. The resulting high-resolution visualisations may meet demands from decision-makers for tools to communicate scientific results more effectively, due to their realism and apparent authenticity. Nevertheless they can also produces a tension with the underlying scientific content because of the necessary extrapolation of extra detail, and the lack of established procedures to communicate the resulting uncertainty in the visualisation. Coastal managers also have concerns about releasing the visualisations to the general public. These issues are explored through analysis of future cliff erosion in Norfolk on the eastern coast of Great Britain.

Coastal zones exemplify the environmental pressures we face: their beauty attracts settlement, they offer potential for diverse economic activities, and they are sensitive natural habitats for important species, as well as providing a range of ecosystem services. They are also extremely vulnerable to the vicissitudes of climate change, which include rising sea levels and changes in extreme events such as storms. With large populations living in coastal and estuarine cities facing the ongoing threat of inundation, coordinated management is essential, especially as coastal zones form a linked system in which piecemeal, uncoordinated management could be counterproductive.

To date, academic research relating to Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) has largely focused on resource assessment, technical viability and environmental impact. Experiences from onshore renewable energy tell us that social acceptability is equally critical to project success. However, the specific nature of the marine environment, patterns of resource distribution and governance means experiences from onshore may not be directly applicable to MRE and the marine environment. This paper sets out an agenda for social studies research linked to MRE, identifying key topics for future research: (i) economic impacts; (ii) wealth distribution and community benefits; (iii) communication and knowledge flow; (iv) consultation processes; (v) dealing with uncertainty; (vi) public attitudes; and (vii) planning processes. This agenda is based on the findings of the first workshop of ISSMER, an international research network of social scientists with interests in marine renewable energy. Importantly, this research agenda has been informed by the experiences of developers, regulators and community groups in Orkney. The Orkney archipelago, off the north coast of Scotland, is home to the most intense cluster of MRE research, development and deployment activity in the world today. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Coastal zones attract settlements, are ideal for a range of economic activities and accommodate important natural habitats that provide ecosystem services. All these coastal activities are vulnerable to climate and other changes unless appropriate management policies are implemented. Sea-level rise and intensified storms could increase the incidence of flooding and erosion, as well as degrade coastal ecosystems. Importantly, the coast is a linked system, and management responses for one area or sector may influence the impacts for other areas or sectors. Understanding coastal processes and taking account of climate and socio-economic futures helps to illustrate/reveal impending choices,and in developing responsive informed long-term coastal management policies. This paper describes research being carried out by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research on their Coastal Simulator. The research includes the linkage of a range of modelling procedures to represent coastal management and climate and coastal processes, as well as the design of a GIS-based interface to make the intergrated results accessible. The prototype simulator provides regional impact assessments of climate and socio-economic futures under various management options in the coastal zones of Norfolk, Fast Anglia and shows that erosion and flood risk are strongly linked.