Transboundary tools for spatial planning and conservation of the Gulf of Finland (SE511)
Funded by South-East Finland - Russia ENPI 2007-2013

Objective of the project

The aim of the project TOPCONS is to link the findings of the project to the outcomes of the earlier projects to support decision making by producing tools for marine spatial planning and management, including demonstrating a prototype of a marine spatial planning tool for decision making at an international, national and regional level.

Main activities

- Transboundary co-operation between Finnish and Russian institutes involved in the planning and management of marine resources in the Eastern Gulf of Finland. - Collation and production of datasets that characterize abiotic and biotic parameters, their natural driving forces and human activities at the project area, all of which will be utilized in discovering the biotic hotspots and areas of controversy in the EGOF. - Combining nature values with human activities and stakeholder views to produce a prototype of spatial planning tool that can be utilized by national, regional and local authorities in marine spatial planning in the future. - Detailed description of the activities can be found in the WPs section of the proposal.

Achievements

As a concrete results the project produced for example a database of geological data including information about 7350 sampling stations and geological maps for the Eastern Gulf of Finland. Intercalibration of datasets, terminology and methodology of existing wide range of information was also one of the core activities in the TOPCONS project. Also new data was collected and analyzed. Project included also the development of the training programme on sustainable use of marine resources. Master's Educational Programme was named as "Maritime activity and integrated coastal zone management" and it was already completed by 12 students during the project duration. TOPCONS project has published several researches, articles, glossaries and on-line services which may be reviewed at the website www.merikotka.fi/topcons.