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For the district governance level, taking into account the medium- and long-term changes in the model of strategic spatial planning of marine activities (marine spatial planning) natural and environmental sustainability factors are one of the most important components, which is necessary to consider. Their importance is due to the fact that the geographical environment, being complex and comprehensive formation, has a strong impact on the development and preservation of ecosystems. At the same time, for the considered governance and spatial level, the consideration of these factors can be reduced to the assessment of environmental risks of anthropogenic impact on the coastal system and coastal infrastructure. All environmental factors can be divided into direct and indirect. Direct impact factors are those that have a direct impact on the environment and do not need to be subdivided into components. Such factors are air emissions, availability and area of protected areas and others. Indirect parameters are those assessment parameters through which it is possible to express the pressure on the environment, not directly showing the state of the environment, but having physical justification for this. For example, these factors are the density of the coastal population, economic costs allocated to environmental protection and others. The indicator approach, which combines different approaches to assessing the stability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, is widely recognized in the scientific works and studies of coastal systems. The indicator approach involves the use of various indicator systems to analyze and assess the state of sustainability and trends in coastal systems. The method was tested for the coastal district municipalities of the Murmansk region, resulting in a heterogeneous distribution of anthropogenic load depending on the types of impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Murmansk region is a most dynamically developing region of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation, which combines many conflicts in the types of nature use by various maritime sectors, with a negative impact on fragile Arctic ecosystems. The existing Russian and international experience in the application of the concept of marine spatial planning (MSP) was analyzed in terms of its application for the Russian Arctic and the current state and prospects of the socio-economic development of maritime complex was studied for the case of the Murmansk region. Instrument of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is considered and analysed to solve the nature users' conflicts and to provide the successful and sustainable eco-socio-economic development of the region. For the Russian Federation it is required first to approve the principles of state management of maritime activities that differentiate responsibilities in the management between federal executive bodies, executive authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation and local self-government bodies. It is also important to improve the information base and to use intelligent information technologies to process information on the use of marine space by several types of economic activities at sea. The development of tools for marine (aquatorial) spatial planning in such key regions of the Russian Federation as the Russian Arctic will, on the one hand, promote compliance with the national interests of the Russian Federation, and on the other, facilitate the implementation of the Russian Federation's international obligations to adapt and implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established by the UN for the XXI century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analytical review was conducted of modern scientific-technical, regulatory, and methodological literature in the area of existing experience in assessing the sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, as applied to marine spatial planning. The analysis showed that currently there is no uniform approach to the assessment of sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, as well as various impacts on the environment. The existing global and regional concepts of assessment of coastal facilities' stability and impacts on the environment represent a common set of rules based on national and/or local normative documents, which reflect regional peculiarities of coastal zones and coastal infrastructure. Different countries have different approaches to the assessment of stability of the coastal zone and associated infrastructure, and environmental impact. Common to all countries are the recommendations of national and/or framework laws, legislation, part of which are the methods of assessment of sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, leading to development of regional/territorial regulatory methods in order to reflect the characteristics of the region to reduce negative impact on the coastal zone and the environment in general. Based on Russian and international experience in assessing the sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, as applied to the problems of the marine spatial planning, one should consider the need to use a multi-level system of assessment of sustainability of coastal systems and coastal infrastructure, using the levels of warning and mitigation of adverse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that detailed the development of two independent methods to determine the optimum locations for locating offshore renewable energy facilities. It introduced the spatial technology Principal Components and Cluster Analyses (PCCA) and the Technology Development Index (TDI). The study also discussed the application of both methods to Rhode Island and Southeast New England coastal waters. The optimum sites for offshore wind turbines supported by lattice jacket structures were determined.