Using Legal Regimes as a Tool for Integrate Spatial Planning in Marine and Terrestrial Areas

Leon Gosar, Franci Steinman, Primoz Banovec

University of Ljubljana, Faculty for Civil and Geodetic Engineering (SI)

The coastal sea and the near-coastal area have many specific characteristics, which are not comparable to the characteristics of the inland water regime, therefore they require special consideration both within the regulations governing the water problems, as well as within the strategy of water management and development planning (spatial planning, regional economy planning, etc.).

To a great extent, the land use planning indirectly dictated and still dictates the use of the sea in the narrow coastal belt (since these are the so-called functionally connected lands). The discussion about the sea related issues will have to focus also on the consequences brought by the authorized uses and the applicable legislation on the individual (spatially defined) areas. Regarding the recognised notion of the use of the sea and the water rights, it is first necessary to record and present the actual state of the use of the sea, the rights and the obligations associated to the obtained water rights arising from the national regulations and regulations of the local communities, which relate to an individual area of the authorised use or to the performance of activities.

The preparation of suitable expert bases for water (sea) and waterside area (near-costal area) management can provide efficient transposition of the water protection policy (in all its forms) and the principles of sustainable water management to all levels of spatial planning and decision-making process on the activities which affect the environment. Therefore, the use of the physical space, land and sea has to be adapted the marine environment in terms of quantity and quality, which is the basic guidance included in all international conventions; but, at the same time, we should not neglect the analyses of cost-efficiency of the possible activities as a support in the decision-making process.

In order to be able to assess the volume of the rights, obligations and limitations, it will be necessary to analyse, for the purpose of the uses of the sea, the legal regimes of the areas related to these uses, as they are defined in the legislation. The volume of the existing rights, obligations and limitations has to be a starting point for future planning and authorisation of the sea use.

A legal regime is considered to be a string of legal rules, as introduced by the regulation, which lays down the method of exercising the granted right of use and the obligations related to it in a clearly defined area. These rules can be set only when there exist a legal basis and criteria, on the basis of which a legal regime can be unambiguously determined. A legal regime, as a rule, interferes with the property rights of, for example, persons of the private law, as well as of an individual user (e.g. a tourist).

At the same time, the legal regime of lands, be it a marine or near-coastal land, which primarily presents the limitations on the use of the sea or water lands, exerts influence also on the other (e.g. neighbouring) uses of the sea or the costal area, due to functional integrity of the water regime of the sea as a fluid or the sea as a receiver of all waters, etc. The legal regime of the sea use has to be harmonised with the legal regime of the public good, which already applies to the sea (as a natural resource), the goal of which is to allow the general use to anybody to the same extent and under the same conditions.

We can note that there are many different sector legislations which intervene in the field of waters and which introduce a number of areas with limitations, i.e. areas with a legal regime. The recording of all areas, the protection of which depends on the regulated water regime, is required also by the Directive establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, which demands that the water management basis and the planning record the contents of the adopted legal regimes and the regulation, on the basis of which the legal regime was established, in order to take into account also their water rights.

The presented consequences of the introduction of the legal regimes require a consideration about the future procedures of granting the special use rights or areas defined with a legal regime. The presented approach shows that we already have efficient tools, with which it is possible to define (or design) applicable boundary conditions, in order to be able to plan or allow the uses of the sea in the future, while taking into account the functional connection of the sea use, real estate use and the implementation of the current and planned activities.

The contribution is especially in the fact that it directs towards the path leading from qualitative assessments (e.g. how the sea is problematic) to the suitable conceptual and quantitative solutions, which will be predominantly based on a suitable expert and legal groundwork, which is a condition for a successful implementation of measures. Quantitative (and integrate) analysis of the sea of the Republic of Slovenia represents a condition for any decision-making process on the use of the marine environment and the activities functionally related to it. The use of the standard solutions of processing of spatial and attributive data will allow combination and complementation with other contents and expert bases that enter the processes of development planning.

The poster present the spatial and atribute database of Slovenian coast and marine envoronment: uses of terrestrial and marine areas, legal regimes of coast and marine areas. Uses of legal regimes is presented in two site cases. For example, the aquatorij of shell fish mariculture positioned in Strunjan Bay without adequate analysis of the prevailing conditions is causing conflicts of uses, unacceptable limiting of general use of the sea and prohibitive limitations in neighbouring areas. In addition, the analysis done for the artificial island in front of Izola - Isola shows that there are no such consequences. Only uses in the public interest were proposed, since when assessing suitability first public and then common interests where considered. Posible specific (e.g. entrepreneurial) uses were permited only if the afore mentioned were not obstructed. Thus, integral management of the coastal was enabled, with respect to functional ties between the land and sea.