Use of the Spatial Economic Benefit Analysis (SEBA) for Marine Spatial Planning: A Case Including Offshore Wind Energy and Fisheries in France

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a key instrument for sustainable ocean governance in Europe, yet the spatial distribution of socioeconomic benefits and trade-offs remains poorly documented. This study applies and extends the Spatial Economic Benefit Analysis (SEBA) framework to offshore wind energy and capture fisheries in France, with a focus on the North Atlantic–Western Channel (NAMO) façade. Three extensions are introduced relative to earlier single-sector, single-scale SEBA applications: simultaneous dual-sector comparison, nesting of project-level firm mapping within regional analysis, and delivery through an open, updatable visualization platform that allows planners to re-run the analysis as registries are updated. Twelve indicator families were selected against four explicit criteria (relevance to a SEBA step, spatial attributability, traceability to a planning instrument, and public availability) and cross-validated against independent registries. Offshore wind employment is more unevenly distributed across regions than fishery revenue (Gini 0.59 versus 0.42), and firm presence is a weak proxy for employment: Brittany hosts 26.6% of mapped offshore wind firms but only 6.5% of sectoral full-time equivalents (2.1 FTE per firm), whereas Île-de-France hosts 4.8% of firms and 19.6% of employment (34.6 FTE per firm). Fishery revenue and offshore wind firm counts are positively rank-correlated across coastal regions (Spearman ρ = 0.90, n = 5, p = 0.037), indicating co-location rather than causation: offshore wind constitutes an additional spatial pressure on a sector already contracting (−9.5% employment 2012–2022; −29% vessels 2000–2023). Uncertainty was addressed through a three-tier data confidence classification and sensitivity testing; concentration rankings were robust to extreme reassignments of multi-role firms (ΔGini ≤ 0.06). The analysis is deliberately restricted to the distribution of economic benefits and does not assess ecological impacts, which must be integrated before SEBA outputs inform zoning. Outputs are directly interpretable for façade plan revision, tender local content scoring, and compensation design, and the workflow is transferable to any jurisdiction with public corporate registries and landings statistics.