MarineMap incorporates Google Earth visualization into a Web-based tool for participatory spatial planning. MarineMap allows users to draft planning proposals onto a familiar geography, generate real-time reports on prospective social and environmental effects of the plans and share and discuss their plans with others. In California's Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, MarineMap has been used to extend participation among fishermen, conservation groups, scientists and the general public in the planning of marine protected areas off the state's coast. Available for download as an open source technology, MarineMap can be used to facilitate spatial planning processes on land or sea.
"We are grateful for this recognition," said Will McClintock, director of the MarineMap Consortium and a project scientist with the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. "We are thrilled to develop a technology that invites the public to the table on important environmental decisions."
The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution is a program of the Udall Foundation, an independent federal agency based in Tucson. The award was presented to McClintock by Mark Schaefer of the Udall Foundation.