In Spring 2010, 17 Brown University undergraduate and graduate students worked with Prof. Leslie on a collaborative effort to help inform coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) in the Northeast US, as part of her course, Marine Conservation Science and Policy (ENVS 1455). The core text for the course was Prof. Leslie’s new book, Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans.
In partnership with the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC), students synthesized information on key case studies of marine spatial planning so as to inform NROC’s ongoing efforts to ‘operationalize’ the national CMSP framework.
The goal of this community-based research and learning effort was to provide information on relevant data, decision support tools, and governance requirements that enable effective regional CMSP. Students self-organized into teams to synthesize the relevant natural and social science, and to place their findings in a relevant policy context.
Download the two-page brief prepared for NROC, along with a compilation of the case study abstracts.
For more information on this project and related, ongoing research, please contact Prof. Leslie at Heather_Leslie (at) brown.edu.