Marine Spatial Planning CPD Series 2025

Moderator: Dr Heather Richie MIPI

• UPDATE ON MSP AND COEXISTENCE IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT –

  Tom Woolley, Marine Planning Adviser, Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications; John Desmond, Planning Adviser, Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications; Lodewijk Abspoel, Advisor for Integrated Maritime Policy at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Netherlands

• Q&A

Speakers

Lodewijk Abspoel - Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Netherlands
Lodewijk Abspoel is a senior policy advisor for European Integrated Maritime Policy, including the European Ocean Pact and Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) at the Dutch coordinating ministry for the North Sea. He was involved in drafting the EU MSP Directive (89/2014 EU) and project leader of the Dutch North Sea 2050 Spatial Agenda. He has since been working in various EU funded projects to optimize and future proofing MSP. This includes work on land-sea interactions, cross-border coherence & cooperation, and emerging topics in MSP such as climate change. Lodewijk chairs the North Seas MSP collaboration group.

Moderator: Ali Robinson MIPI

• ROLE OF IRISH LIGHTS IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT - Ronan Boyle, Commissioners of Irish Lights
• MARINE STRATEGY FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE – Cathal O'Mahony, Marine Policy Adviser, Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
• Q&A

Cathal O’Mahony is a Marine Policy Advisor within the Marine Environment and Planning Section of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment – within this role he is engaged in the implementation of policy and legislation linked to marine environmental protection, nature restoration and marine spatial planning at both national and EU levels. Prior to joining the Department, Cathal worked within research for over 2O years in University College Cork, within an internationally recognised research centre of excellence – in that time he undertook independent research and managed research teams focused on coastal and marine planning, marine governance and climate change adaptation in coastal environments. He is a graduate of University College Cork and University College Dublin.

Moderator: Conor Crowther MIPI

• IRELAND’S NATIONAL COASTAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY - Colin Ryan MIPI, Senior Planning Adviser, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
• COASTAL ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE IN THE UK - Prof Robert Nicholls, University of East Anglia, Former Director, Tyndall Institute, UK
• Q&A

Speakers

Robert Nicholls is based at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia and the School of Engineering at the University of Southampton. He analyses long-term coastal behaviour, identifying problems and finding solutions. Much of his work has focused on sea-level rise and climate change. A distinctive dimension has been consideration of the coastal zone as a series of interacting systems which facilitates policy analysis. He also has extensive international and global experience, especially in coastal cities, deltas and small islands. He has advised national governments (e.g., UK, Netherlands, Bangladesh, Singapore) and intergovernmental organisations (e.g., OECD) on climate change and coastal issues. He was a lead author to five reports of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) assessment process. Active and recent projects include PROTECT on high-end sea-level rise; CoCliCo on coastal climate services; and REST-COAST on coastal restoration.