North Sea

As explained on the Configurations page, any MSP Challenge edition is configurable to fit your own requirements. The best way to do this is by editing the basic configuration file of a particular edition.

The North Sea edition has a basic configuration with the following main parameters:

• Start date January 2018, end date January 2050
• Each of the standard four eras covers eight years:
  • Era 1: Jan 2018 - Jan 2026
  • Era 2: Jan 2026 - Jan 2034
  • Era 3: Jan 2034 - Jan 2042
  • Era 4: Jan 2042 - Jan 2050

• Eight countries with two or three objectives each:
  • Orange (the Netherlands)
  • Yellow (Germany)
  • Blue (Denmark)
  • Purple (Norway)
  • Green (Scotland)
  • Red (England)
  • Pink (Belgium)
  • (France)

• Dataset as stipulated on the Data sources page. See the North sea edition table in the data sources page.
• Three background simulations:
  • Ecopath-with-Ecosim ecosystem simulation, and predefined ecosystem pressures (noise, artificial substrate, surface disturbance, bottom disturbance, fishing efforts and protection from fishing activities) generated from different human activities.
  • Shipping simulation, monthly ship traffic entering, leaving or within the North Sea region.
  • Energy simulation, existing offshore renewable energy areas, electricity cables and landing stations (landfall points) in the different countries. These simulate the curent energy flow of the existing infrastructure.
• Restrictions and errors:
  • Errors when planning different physically-obstructing human activities on the same area, e.g. a wind farm on a shipping lane, or vice versa.
  • Warnings when planning human activities with defined ecosystem pressures in an MPA or Natura2000 site, or vice versa.