Our visiting presenters, Ivar Svare Holand and Olaf Stjernstrom provided the talk about sustainable planning for the development in Norway last week. It was very interesting to know about Norway, their practices on sustainable planning for marine sector in local and regional scales planning and the use of spatial data. Norway major country economy relies on fish firming and oil industry. Two third of fish exports were from the firming and one third were from the wild stock. To support the successful firming business, sustainable planning and development is equally important. Moreover, the understanding of major criteria such as the depth, current, shelter and the proximity to the infrastructure are vital pieces of information to analyze. The location on the map shown that most oil development were seeming to be on off-shore and located along the west coast. Along the coast, the further you go to the north, the more firming and the development will be seen. The controlling factors for the marine spatial planning was to use the scientific statement of documented or non-documented data and facts or both, but for the zoning purpose, polygon type spatial data were being considered. For that aspect, there might be some gaps where no polygonal data are available, and the point data were considered as invalid.

To be able to minimize or solve the problem, Olaf explained a consideration point to problematize within the community, because true understanding can only better solve the problem. While solving the problem, it is necessary to consider all levels, and group it together to simplify the problem so that the risk will be minimal. The communication was the another important pieces of component; to share the visions, the process, and keeping the whole team in the loop.

I like the fact that Olaf highlighted about another consideration factors for the sustainable development was inclusiveness of the social sustainability factor which is the most planners put the less weight on. That would be the main reason, he added a proving point on the talk about the 10 years income study for the mining industry in the European Arctic. He found that high pay in mining sector affected the country economy, but it impacted negatively to the housing price. It came up to my mine to ask about how the planner will be balancing out those issues in the planning stage, I might hear the conclusion if he can stretch out his presentation longer.

There were no components directly support/apply to my research area, however, some gave me as an intangible benefit. Overall, I enjoy the presentation and looking forward to hearing more visitor presentation soon.