Geoinformatics for management and monitoring of marine environment

Increased demand for marine goods and services results in flooding of spatial and environmental data in the marine industries sector worldwide. The application of planning and management concepts and instruments to the marine sector is still relatively new and the use of geoinformatics (GIS) to support these endeavours is presently in its infancy level. In recognition of the numerous challenges for management faced by the marine sector, more environment-oriented ethos of holistic, transdisciplinary integrative principles needs to be addressed. This paper points out the possibilities of geoinformatics and especially GIS in various aspects that can be tapped for marine management including coastal and ocean scale applications, industrial expansion, achieving conservation objectives, and implementing methods like ecosystem-based management (EBM). The paper gives an overview of the application of GIS, its technology and approaches, for monitoring data, and its use for analyzing, modeling, and decision-making in marine management.