Grenadines MarSIS
Marine Resource and Space-use Information System
Grenadines MarSIS Research Rationale

Marine resources are of vital importance to the people of the Grenadines, yet planning and management of the use of marine resources of the Grenada Bank is becoming increasingly complex.

 

 

 


  • Not only are marine resources distributed across the Grenada Bank but they are shared between two nations and utilized by a variety of marine resource users emanating from nine inhabited Grenadine islands.
  • Management thus far has taken a conventional, top-down, command-and-control approach guided by standard non-specific regional management plans and based on limited biophysical information.  
  • Marine management of the Grenada Bank has not been integrated amongst disciplines, between nations or knowledge systems.


This segregated management approach has not been effective in preventing the environmental degradation of the Grenada Bank. It is proposed that effective and proper planning will require a complex and adaptive mechanism tailored to the local environment. Easy access to a wide variety of integrated knowledge on marine resources and space-use patterns of the Grenadines is proposed to allow for more informed decision-making, management and planning for sustainable development within the transboundary Grenadine Island chain.




What is MarSIS?


The Grenadines Marine Resource and Space-use Information System (MarSIS) is a Geographical Information System (GIS). The development of the MarSIS database forms part of Kim Baldwin's PhD research supervised by Professors Robin Mahon    and Hazel Oxenford at the CERMES Department of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.
 

MarSIS is spatial mapping database which has been developed as a tool to aid decision-making and allow for more sustainable transboundary marine resource management. By using a GIS, existing scientific information can be merged together with a variety of local knowledge information on the marine resources and other areas important for conservation and livelihoods in order to provide a wider information base and allow for a more holistic and informed decision-making process between the countries of Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.


 

Moreover, the Grenadines MarSIS is considered a 'participatory GIS'  in that has been collaboratively developed with a range of stakeholders (including the various marine-related government agencies of both St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, a variety of NGOs, the marine resource users and the Greadine communities) over the past five years. Data collection for the MarSIS was completed in November of 2009 and now is publically accessible on this website. Currently information is only available for viewing and download in the Google Earth format. The complete MarSIS (ArcGIS version 9.3.1) will be available in late 2010 via ArcGIS Online.



Grenadines MarSIS has information on:

 

Marine habitats*

•reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, beaches, rocky shores

Infrastructure

•seaports, marinas, jetties, roads, hotels, desalination plants

Marine resource users*

•Dive shops, tourism facilities, fish landing sites, communities, etc.

Marine space-use*

•anchorages, dive sites, fishing grounds, shipping lanes, recreation areas

Sensitive biological & heritage areas*

•sea turtle nesting beaches, seabird nesting sites, marine protected areas, nursery grounds, historical sites, shipwrecks

Areas of threat*

•sand-mining, beach erosion, dumping, land-based sources of marine pollution, mangrove cutting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           *Indicates the use of local knowledge in the dataset

 

A project of the CERMES Department, University of the West Indies and the Sustainable Grenadines Project -Union Island

(784) 454-0606 cell
(784) 485-8779 or (246) 417-4828 office
(246) 424-4204 fax

info@grendaniesmarsis.com
Please see documents below
Web Hosting Companies