Blue urbanism

Blue urbanism - an emerging set of ideas and perspectives - means that cities would evaluate seriously and regulate carefully their effects on marine environments. Planners are potentially on the front lines of this new movement. Cities have jurisdiction over near-shore habitats and can extend zones of planning and management to offshore areas. Coastal states such as Oregon and Hawaii have already started the process. This is the same as to many other regions. Last year, for instance, the Cape Cod Commission created an Ocean Management Planning District in order to extend its regional planning powers to include a half million acre of open ocean; its agenda includes evaluating the scale, location, and efficacy of offshore wind turbines.

Edited and translated by Zhang Yifei