PORTLAND, Ore. – The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution today awarded its first “Innovation in Technology and ECR” Award to the MarineMap Consortium, a group that brings together partners from University of California, Santa Barbara, Ecotrust, and The Nature Conservancy. The Award was presented at the Institute’s ECR 2010 conference in Tucson, Arizona.

MarineMap incorporates Google Earth visualization into a web-based tool for participatory spatial planning. MarineMap allows users to draft planning proposals onto a familiar geography, generate real-time reports on prospective social and environmental effects of the plans, and share and discuss their plans with others. In California’s Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, MarineMap has been used to extend participation among fishermen, conservation groups, scientists, and the general public in the planning of marine protected areas off the state’s coast. Available for download as an open source technology, MarineMap can be used to facilitate spatial planning processes on land or sea.

The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution is a program of the Udall Foundation, an independent federal agency based in Tucson, Arizona. Udall Foundation Deputy Executive Director of Environmental Conflict Resolution Mark Schaefer presented the Award to Dr. Will McClintock, director of the MarineMap Consortium. “We are grateful for this recognition,” said Dr. McClintock, “and we are thrilled to develop a technology that invites the public to the table on important environmental decisions.”

For a video about MarineMap, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFxnso4GXv4

About the MarineMap Consortium
The MarineMap Consortium brings together personnel and skills from UC Santa Barbara, Ecotrust, and The Nature Conservancy. The Consortium creates open source spatial tools that integrate and illuminate the human dimensions of environmental decision making. http://marinemap.org/