A novel marine spatial management tool for multiple conflicts recognition and optimization of marine functional zoning in the East China sea

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is to manage incompatible functional use for achieving spatial homogeneity in sea. However most MSP strategies focus on single-target sea use demand ignoring multiple-conflicts of different demands. Thus, this study develops a spatial management model and quantitatively recognizes two types of spatial conflicts among eight sea use functions in the Zhejiang coasts, China. Under the simulation of three different management scenarios including independent, joint and overall-value managements respectively, we further propose a conflict optimization scheme in the scenarios of sea uses with different intensities, different types of sea use combinations, and different site selection. Most importantly, this study demonstrates the spatial management model is a powerful and efficient tool for spatial multiple-conflicts trade-off and matching sea use demands under the practical approach of marine functional zoning (MFC) in China. •A spatial management model is developed for marine spatial multiple-conflicts trade-off.•Buffer expansion conflict and compatible use conflict are quantitatively recognized separately.•Three different scenarios simulation are applied to realize the conflict trade-off.•Match sea use demands with minimizing conflicts to select compatible sea uses.