Sub-National Ocean Accounts

1. Outcome

After completing this Circular, readers will be able to compile ocean accounts at sub-national scales--provinces, municipalities, marine parks, coastal zones, and other administrative or ecological regions below the national level. The Circular serves as the centralised reference for sub-national applicability across all ocean account types, addressing the spatial delineation of sub-national accounting areas, regionalisation of national supply-use tables, the compilation of ecosystem extent and condition accounts at local scales, and the design of information products for local decision-makers.

Sub-national ocean accounts respond to a fundamental reality of ocean governance: most management decisions affecting marine and coastal resources are taken at the local or regional level. Marine spatial plans, fisheries access arrangements, coastal development permits, pollution discharge licences, and protected area management plans are typically the responsibility of sub-national authorities--provincial governments, municipal councils, port authorities, or marine park agencies. These authorities require accounting information that is spatially relevant to their jurisdiction, not merely national aggregates that obscure local variation.

Critical decision use cases enabled by sub-national ocean accounts include:

Provincial and municipal coastal planning: Sub-national governments responsible for coastal zones require integrated data on ecosystem extent, condition, economic activity, and pressures within their jurisdiction. A provincial governor managing a coastline with competing uses--tourism, fishing, aquaculture, port development--needs accounts that reveal how these activities interact with local ecosystems and what trade-offs are involved. Sub-national ecosystem extent and condition accounts provide the evidence base for zoning decisions and development control (see TG-1.2 Marine Spatial Planning).

Marine protected area management: Park managers require detailed accounts of ecosystem assets within their boundaries, including extent and condition changes, ecosystem service flows, and the economic activities of surrounding communities that depend on or affect the protected area. Sub-national accounts enable adaptive management by tracking whether conservation interventions are maintaining or improving ecosystem condition (see TG-1.3 Marine Spatial Management).

Local economic development planning: Municipal and regional authorities seeking to develop sustainable ocean economies require information on the structure and performance of ocean-related industries in their area, the natural capital base supporting those industries, and the distributional consequences of resource use for local populations (see TG-1.10 National Planning).

Integrated coastal zone management: Authorities responsible for managing the land-sea interface need accounts that capture upstream-downstream relationships between terrestrial catchments and marine receiving waters, linking land-use change, nutrient runoff, and coastal ecosystem condition at scales relevant to management intervention (see TG-2.7 Pollution and Other Flows to Environment).

This Circular addresses the delineation of sub-national spatial units (Section 3.1), methods for regionalising national supply-use tables (Section 3.2), a sub-national applicability matrix for all account types (Section 3.3), approaches to linking sub-national accounts to local planning processes (Section 3.4), and the design of dashboards and information products for local decision-makers (Section 3.5).

2. Requirements

Essential prerequisites:

• TG-0.1 General Introduction to Ocean Accounts -- for the conceptual framework and the definition of the ocean accounting area
• TG-3.1 Asset Accounts -- for the methodology of physical and monetary asset accounts, including ecosystem extent and condition accounts
• TG-3.8 Combined Presentations -- for the principles governing integration of multiple account types into coherent presentations

Helpful background:

• TG-3.3 Economic Activity Relevant to the Ocean -- for the ocean economy thematic and extended accounting framework, including supply-use tables
• TG-4.1 Remote Sensing and Geospatial Data -- for satellite-based methods of measuring ecosystem extent at fine spatial resolution

3. Guidance Material

The SEEA Ecosystem Accounting framework establishes that accounting principles are equally applicable across different spatial scales and entities^[1]. For any given thematic accounting exercise, there is no a priori restriction on the geographical area, type of entity, or classification that must be applied. Choices of spatial scope should be made with a focus on the use of the accounts, including the potential to compare results over time and in different locations^[1:1]. This principle provides the foundation for sub-national ocean accounts: the same accounting structures used at national level--extent accounts, condition accounts, supply-use tables, asset accounts--can be compiled for provinces, municipalities, marine parks, or any other spatially delineated sub-national unit.

Sub-national compilation introduces specific methodological challenges that do not arise, or arise less acutely, at national level. These include the delineation of spatial units that serve both ecological and administrative purposes, the allocation of economic activity to sub-national areas when enterprises operate across boundaries, the treatment of cross-boundary ecosystem service flows, and the reconciliation of sub-national accounts with national totals. This section addresses each of these challenges in turn, drawing on the spatial accounting framework of SEEA EA Chapters 5 through 7 and the regionalisation methods developed through the EU Integrated System for Natural Capital Accounting (INCA) programme.

The EU INCA programme has demonstrated that national ecosystem accounts can be compiled from spatially explicit data at fine resolution (typically 100 m grid cells) and then aggregated to any administrative or ecological boundary^[2]. This bottom-up approach, in which accounts are first compiled at fine spatial resolution and then aggregated upwards, is particularly well suited to sub-national ocean accounting because marine and coastal ecosystems rarely align with administrative boundaries. A coral reef system may span multiple municipal jurisdictions; a mangrove forest may straddle a provincial boundary; a fish stock may range across the exclusive economic zones of several sub-national management authorities.

3.1 Sub-National Spatial Delineation

The first step in compiling sub-national ocean accounts is defining the spatial units for which accounts will be compiled. The SEEA EA identifies two fundamental spatial concepts: the ecosystem accounting area (EAA), which defines the total geographical scope, and the basic spatial unit (BSU), which is the smallest unit for which data are compiled^[3]. At the national level, the EAA typically corresponds to the national territory plus the Exclusive Economic Zone. For sub-national accounts, the EAA is a portion of this national area, and the BSU is defined at a resolution appropriate to the management questions being addressed.

Defining sub-national accounting areas

Sub-national accounting areas should be delineated according to three criteria, balancing ecological coherence, administrative relevance, and data availability:

Administrative boundaries provide the most immediately useful delineation for sub-national accounts because they correspond to the jurisdictions of the decision-makers who will use the accounts. Provincial boundaries, municipal boundaries, coastal management zones, and marine protected area boundaries all serve as potential sub-national accounting areas. The SEEA EA notes that choices of geographical area should be made with a focus on the use of the accounts^[1:2], and administrative boundaries maximise the alignment between accounting information and decision-making authority. However, administrative boundaries rarely coincide with ecosystem boundaries, which can create challenges for measuring ecosystem extent and condition.

Ecological boundaries delineate areas based on ecosystem characteristics--bioregions, catchment-to-coast systems, large marine ecosystems, or habitat complexes. The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology provides a hierarchical classification that can be used to define ecologically meaningful sub-national units for marine areas^[4]. Ecological boundaries are particularly relevant when the management question concerns ecosystem-level processes (such as nutrient cycling, fish recruitment, or coastal protection) that operate independently of administrative divisions. The EU INCA programme adopted the river basin district as a key ecological boundary for freshwater accounts, demonstrating that ecological units can be used alongside administrative units^[2:1].

Hybrid boundaries combine administrative and ecological criteria. For example, a sub-national accounting area might be defined as a province's coastal zone, extending from the provincial boundary inland to include the coastal catchment and seaward to include the nearshore marine area. This approach is particularly useful for integrated coastal zone management, where the management unit spans the land-sea interface. The SEEA EA describes how ecosystem accounting areas can be defined to suit particular analytical purposes, provided that the boundaries are clearly documented and consistently applied^[3:1].

Table 3.11.1: Comparison of spatial delineation approaches for sub-national ocean accounts

Basic spatial units for marine and coastal areas

The BSU is the smallest spatial unit at which ecosystem accounting data are compiled. For terrestrial ecosystem accounts, the EU INCA programme used grid cells of 100 m resolution, aggregated to 1 km reporting grids^[2:2]. For marine and coastal sub-national accounts, the choice of BSU depends on the resolution of available data and the scale of the management questions being addressed.

For coastal ecosystems (mangroves, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, salt marshes), remote sensing data from satellite platforms such as Sentinel-2 and Landsat provide spatial resolution of 10--30 m, enabling BSUs of 100 m to 1 km to be defined for extent mapping (see TG-4.1 Remote Sensing and Geospatial Data). For offshore areas where ecosystem type is inferred from bathymetry, substrate, and oceanographic conditions rather than direct observation, larger BSUs (1--10 km) may be appropriate. For pelagic environments, where ecosystem boundaries are dynamic and determined by water mass characteristics, even larger BSUs or feature-based delineation may be needed (see TG-6.5 Pelagic and Open Ocean Accounts).

The critical requirement is that BSUs can be aggregated consistently to any sub-national accounting area of interest. When accounts are compiled at fine spatial resolution using grid-based BSUs, they can be summed to administrative boundaries, ecological boundaries, or any hybrid unit, provided that spatial overlay procedures are applied consistently. The SEEA EA emphasises that the choice of BSU should support the derivation of extent accounts, condition accounts, and ecosystem service flow accounts at the relevant spatial scale^[3:2].

For practical implementation, compilers should consider a tiered approach:

• Tier 1 (coarse): Sub-national accounting areas defined by existing administrative boundaries (provinces, municipalities), with ecosystem type mapped at 1 km resolution from global datasets (e.g., Global Mangrove Watch, Allen Coral Atlas). Suitable for initial compilations and countries with limited spatial data capacity.
• Tier 2 (moderate): Sub-national accounting areas combining administrative and ecological boundaries, with ecosystem type mapped at 100 m--1 km resolution from national or regional remote sensing programmes. Supports condition indicators derived from remote sensing.
• Tier 3 (fine): Grid-based BSUs at 100 m resolution or finer, enabling flexible aggregation to any boundary. Requires comprehensive spatial data infrastructure and is consistent with the EU INCA methodology.

Cross-boundary issues

Sub-national accounting areas inevitably encounter ecosystems, economic activities, and environmental flows that cross their boundaries. Compilers must establish conventions for handling these cross-boundary issues to ensure that sub-national accounts are internally consistent and that they aggregate correctly to national totals.

Ecosystem assets spanning boundaries: When an ecosystem asset (e.g., a coral reef system or a mangrove forest) spans two sub-national accounting areas, the asset should be allocated to each area based on the physical extent within that area's boundary. This is conceptually straightforward for extent accounts (area in km2 within each jurisdiction) but more complex for condition accounts, where a single condition indicator may apply to the ecosystem as a whole rather than to the portion within each jurisdiction. The preferred approach is to compile condition indicators for the BSUs falling within each accounting area and to aggregate these to the accounting area level, recognising that the condition of a cross-boundary ecosystem may differ between the portions in different jurisdictions.

Economic activities spanning boundaries: Enterprises may operate across multiple sub-national areas--a fishing fleet based in one province may harvest in waters managed by another. The SEEA CF and the 2025 SNA apply the residence principle, allocating economic activity to the area where the enterprise is resident. For sub-national accounts, this means that the gross value added of a fishing enterprise is allocated to the province where the enterprise is registered, even if fishing takes place in another province's waters. However, for accounts that measure physical extraction (fish catch by location), the activity should be recorded where it physically occurs. This distinction between residence-based economic accounts and territory-based physical accounts should be clearly documented (see TG-3.3 Economic Activity Relevant to the Ocean).

Ecosystem service flows across boundaries: Many marine ecosystem services benefit areas beyond the ecosystem's location. Coastal protection services from a mangrove forest in one municipality may protect infrastructure in an adjacent municipality. Carbon sequestration services benefit the global community. The SEEA EA allocates ecosystem service supply to the ecosystem type providing the service and use to the economic unit benefiting^[5]. For sub-national accounts, compilers should record supply in the accounting area where the ecosystem is located and use in the area where the beneficiary resides, with appropriate documentation of cross-boundary flows.

3.2 Regionalisation of National Supply-Use Tables

Regionalisation is the process of disaggregating national-level economic accounts into sub-national units. For ocean accounts, the primary target of regionalisation is the ocean economy supply-use table compiled following the guidance in TG-3.3 Economic Activity Relevant to the Ocean. Regionalisation enables sub-national authorities to understand the structure and scale of ocean economic activity within their jurisdiction.

Approaches to regionalisation

Three approaches to regionalisation are established in the regional accounting literature, each with different data requirements and precision levels:

Top-down allocation distributes national totals to sub-national units using allocation keys--proxy indicators that approximate the spatial distribution of economic activity. Common allocation keys for ocean economy accounts include:

• Employment by industry and region (from labour force surveys or census data)
• Number of enterprises by industry and region (from business registers)
• Port throughput (for maritime transport industries)
• Fisheries landings by port (for commercial fishing industries)
• Tourist overnight stays by region (for coastal tourism industries)
• Aquaculture production by region (for aquaculture industries)

The advantage of top-down allocation is that it ensures consistency with national totals: sub-national values sum exactly to the national figure. The disadvantage is that the accuracy of sub-national estimates depends on the quality of the allocation key, which may not reflect the true spatial distribution of value added.

Bottom-up compilation constructs sub-national accounts directly from regional data sources--regional business surveys, sub-national tax records, administrative data from provincial authorities. This approach can produce more accurate sub-national estimates but faces the challenge of ensuring consistency with national totals. The EU INCA programme adopted a bottom-up approach for ecosystem service accounts, compiling spatially explicit biophysical models at grid-cell level and aggregating to administrative boundaries^[2:3]. For economic accounts, bottom-up compilation is feasible where sub-national statistical systems are well developed (see TG-4.3 Administrative Data Sources).

Hybrid methods combine top-down and bottom-up approaches. National totals from the SNA are allocated to sub-national units using bottom-up data as allocation keys, ensuring both consistency with national aggregates and use of the best available regional information. This approach is recommended by Eurostat for regional accounts and is well suited to ocean economy regionalisation^[6].

Table 3.11.2: Regionalisation methods for ocean economy supply-use tables

Step-by-step regionalisation procedure

The following procedure describes how to regionalise national ocean economy supply-use tables for a set of sub-national areas (e.g., coastal provinces). This procedure assumes that a national ocean economy thematic account has already been compiled following TG-3.3 Economic Activity Relevant to the Ocean.

Step 1: Define the sub-national areas. Select the set of sub-national units for which ocean economy accounts will be compiled. These should correspond to the sub-national accounting areas defined in Section 3.1. Ensure that the union of all sub-national areas covers the national ocean accounting area without gaps or overlaps (for economic accounts, inland provinces without ocean frontage will have zero or near-zero ocean economy activity for most industries, but may have non-zero values for processing and trade industries).

Step 2: Assemble regional allocation keys. For each ocean-characteristic industry (as classified in TG-3.3 Economic Activity Relevant to the Ocean, Table 3.3.X), identify the best available spatial indicator. Table 3.11.3 provides illustrative allocation keys for major ocean economy industries.

Table 3.11.3: Illustrative allocation keys for ocean economy regionalisation

Step 3: Allocate national values. For each industry, distribute the national supply-use table entries to sub-national areas in proportion to the allocation key. For a given industry i and sub-national area r, the allocated gross value added is:

GVA(i,r) = GVA(i,national) x Key(i,r) / Key(i,total)

where Key(i,r) is the allocation key value for industry i in area r and Key(i,total) is the national total of the allocation key.

Step 4: Balance and validate. Check that sub-national values sum to national totals for each industry and each product. Where bottom-up data are available for specific industries (e.g., fisheries landings data are typically available by port), use these to validate or adjust the top-down allocations. Document any discrepancies and the adjustments made to resolve them. Apply the quality assurance procedures described in TG-0.7 Quality Assurance Principles.

Step 5: Compile regional ocean economy indicators. From the regionalised supply-use tables, derive sub-national ocean economy indicators including regional ocean economy GVA, ocean economy share of regional GDP, ocean economy employment by industry, and labour productivity by ocean industry. These indicators enable comparison across sub-national areas and identification of regional specialisation patterns (see TG-2.5 Structure and Function of the Ocean Economy).

Challenges and limitations

Regionalisation of ocean economy accounts faces several specific challenges that compilers should anticipate:

Confidentiality constraints: In small sub-national areas, individual enterprises may dominate particular industries, making it impossible to publish industry-level data without revealing individual enterprise information. Compilers may need to aggregate industries or suppress cells in sub-national tables to comply with statistical confidentiality requirements. This is particularly common for offshore energy, where a single installation may constitute the entire industry in a given sub-national area (see TG-3.10 Offshore Energy Accounts).

Headquarters versus establishment allocation: National accounts record economic activity at the enterprise level, which may be attributed to the headquarter location rather than the establishment where production occurs. For ocean economy industries where the headquarter and the establishment are in different sub-national areas (e.g., a fishing company headquartered in the capital city but operating from a regional port), the allocation should ideally be to the establishment location. Business register data with establishment-level information support this allocation.

Informal economy: In many countries, significant ocean economic activity occurs in the informal sector--small-scale fishing, informal coastal tourism, artisanal aquaculture. These activities are poorly captured in national accounts and even less visible in regional data. Sub-national accounts should document the likely extent of informal activity and, where possible, incorporate estimates from household surveys, community assessments, or administrative proxies such as fishing vessel registrations (see TG-4.2 Survey Methods for Ocean Economic Activity).

Temporal misalignment: National supply-use tables and sub-national allocation keys may refer to different time periods or use different reference dates. Compilers should verify temporal alignment and adjust for any systematic biases introduced by timing differences, following the general guidance on temporal consistency in TG-0.2 Overview of Relevant Statistical Standards.

3.3 Provincial/Local Asset Accounts and Ecosystem Extent/Condition

This section provides the sub-national applicability matrix--a comprehensive reference for determining which ocean account types can be compiled at sub-national scales, what spatial resolution is needed, and what specific considerations apply. The matrix is followed by detailed guidance on compiling ecosystem extent and condition accounts at sub-national scales, drawing on SEEA EA Chapters 5 and 6.

Sub-national applicability matrix

Not all account types are equally amenable to sub-national compilation. Some accounts are inherently spatial (ecosystem extent accounts can be compiled at any scale where mapping data exist), while others depend on data systems that may not have sub-national resolution (monetary asset accounts require valuation models that may only be available nationally). The following matrix summarises the sub-national applicability of each account type covered by the Technical Guidance circulars.

Table 3.11.4: Sub-national applicability matrix for ocean account types

The matrix reveals that ecosystem-based accounts (extent, condition, ecosystem services, residual flows) generally have high sub-national feasibility because they are compiled from spatially explicit data sources--remote sensing, monitoring stations, biophysical models. Economic accounts present more challenges because the SNA recording conventions (residence-based, enterprise-level) do not always map easily to sub-national geography. Social accounts face sample-size constraints when disaggregated to small areas.

Compilers should use this matrix to plan a realistic scope for sub-national compilation. A pragmatic approach begins with the account types that have high sub-national feasibility (extent, condition, governance) and progressively adds more challenging account types (economic activity, social accounts) as data systems develop. This incremental approach is consistent with the implementation readiness guidance in TG-0.8 Implementation Readiness.

Ecosystem extent accounts at sub-national scale

Ecosystem extent accounts record the area of each ecosystem type within a defined accounting area, including additions and reductions during the accounting period^[7]. At sub-national scales, extent accounts can be compiled at high spatial resolution using remote sensing data, providing detailed maps of ecosystem distribution and change that are directly useful for local planning and management.

The SEEA EA defines extent as the area of each ecosystem type, measured in consistent spatial units (typically hectares or square kilometres)^[7:1]. For sub-national accounts, the compilation process follows the same structure as national extent accounts (see TG-3.1 Asset Accounts, Section 3.4) but operates at finer spatial resolution and within the boundaries of the sub-national accounting area.

Key considerations for sub-national extent accounts include:

Ecosystem type classification at fine resolution: The ecosystem type classification used for national accounts may need refinement for sub-national purposes. For example, a national extent account may record "coral reef" as a single ecosystem type, whereas a marine park manager may need to distinguish between fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and patch reefs. The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology provides a hierarchical classification that supports this refinement--Level 3 (ecosystem functional groups) provides the national classification, while Level 4 or Level 5 (biogeographic ecotypes or local ecosystem subgroups) can be used for sub-national detail^[4:1]. Compilers should document the classification used and provide concordance tables linking sub-national types to the national classification.

Change detection and attribution: Sub-national extent accounts should not only record net change in ecosystem extent but also identify the drivers of change. At local scales, it is often possible to attribute extent changes to specific causes--land conversion for coastal development, aquaculture expansion into mangrove areas, storm damage to coral reefs, or restoration activities. Attributing changes to drivers strengthens the policy relevance of sub-national accounts by enabling targeted management responses. The EU INCA programme demonstrated change-attribution methods by overlaying land-cover change maps with land-use planning data^[2:4].

Accounting for managed ecosystems: Sub-national areas, particularly marine protected areas and coastal reserves, may contain ecosystems under active management or restoration. Extent accounts for these areas should distinguish between natural ecosystem extent and managed or restored extent, documenting the investment in ecological restoration as a form of ecosystem asset enhancement (see TG-6.2 Mangrove and Coastal Wetland Accounting for mangrove restoration accounting).

Table 3.11.5: Illustrative sub-national ecosystem extent account (Province X, 2025)

Ecosystem condition accounts at sub-national scale

Ecosystem condition accounts record the quality or health of ecosystems using indicators that capture biotic and abiotic characteristics^[8]. The SEEA EA organises condition indicators into six groups: physical state, chemical state, compositional state, structural state, functional state, and landscape-level characteristics^[8:1]. At sub-national scales, condition accounts can draw on local monitoring data that may provide richer detail than national monitoring networks.

Sub-national condition accounts present both opportunities and challenges relative to national accounts:

Opportunities: Local monitoring programmes--conducted by marine park authorities, provincial environment agencies, university research stations, or citizen science programmes (see TG-4.4 Citizen Science)--often collect condition data at higher temporal and spatial resolution than national monitoring networks. Reef health surveys within marine protected areas, water quality monitoring at local stations, seagrass shoot density measurements by research teams, and bird counts by volunteer networks all provide condition data that can be incorporated into sub-national accounts. The integration of research data into accounting frameworks is addressed in TG-4.5 Research Data.

Challenges: Condition indicators require reference levels against which current condition is assessed. The SEEA EA recommends establishing reference condition based on the state of ecosystems at a specified reference time, in the absence of human influence, or at a level required to sustain a target level of ecosystem services^[8:2]. At sub-national scales, reference condition may vary across the accounting area due to natural environmental gradients (e.g., reef condition naturally varies with depth, exposure, and latitude). Compilers should use spatially explicit reference conditions where possible, rather than applying a single national reference level across all sub-national areas.

Table 3.11.6: Illustrative sub-national ecosystem condition account (Marine Park Y, 2024--2025)

Interpreting sub-national condition accounts: The condition index for each indicator is calculated as the ratio of the observed value to the reference level (for positive indicators such as coral cover or species richness) or the inverse ratio (for negative indicators such as nutrient concentration). An aggregate condition index for each ecosystem type can be derived as the arithmetic or weighted mean of individual indicator indices, following the aggregation guidance in the SEEA EA^[8:3]. For sub-national decision-makers, the disaggregated indicator-level data are often more useful than aggregate indices, as they point directly to the specific pressures requiring management intervention.

3.4 Linking Sub-National Accounts to Local Planning

Sub-national ocean accounts achieve their full value when they are integrated into local planning and decision-making processes. This requires institutional arrangements that connect the compilation of accounts to the governance processes that will use them, and analytical frameworks that translate accounting data into planning-relevant information.

Institutional arrangements for sub-national compilation

The compilation of sub-national ocean accounts requires coordination between national statistical offices (which compile national accounts and maintain statistical standards), sub-national government agencies (which hold local data and make local decisions), and specialised agencies (marine park authorities, fisheries agencies, port authorities) that operate at sub-national scales. The SEEA EA notes that "much of the information required to compile ocean accounts is common to other communities of practice including those for marine spatial planning, disaster risk and climate change" and that "one objective of the ocean accounting community of practice is to ensure that these common data are standardized and shared"^[9].

Effective institutional arrangements for sub-national compilation typically involve three elements. First, a national coordination body (often the national statistical office or a designated environment-economy accounting unit) establishes methodological standards and ensures that sub-national accounts are consistent with national accounts and with international standards. This coordination function is described in TG-4.7 Data Coordination. Second, sub-national compilation teams, located within provincial statistical offices, coastal management authorities, or marine park agencies, assemble local data and compile accounts following the national methodology. Third, a data harmonisation process ensures that sub-national accounts use consistent classifications, reference periods, and measurement units, enabling aggregation to national totals and comparison across sub-national areas (see TG-4.6 Data Harmonisation and Interoperability).

Connecting accounts to planning instruments

Sub-national ocean accounts can inform several categories of local planning instruments:

Marine spatial plans: Sub-national extent accounts provide the baseline mapping of ecosystem distribution that underpins spatial zoning. Condition accounts identify areas under stress that may warrant protective zoning. Economic activity accounts reveal the spatial distribution of competing uses. Combined presentations (see TG-3.8 Combined Presentations) integrate these data into the analytical framework required by marine spatial planning processes (see TG-1.2 Marine Spatial Planning).

Protected area management plans: Marine park management plans typically require monitoring data on ecosystem condition, visitation levels, and compliance with regulations. Sub-national accounts provide a structured framework for organising this monitoring data, tracking trends over time, and linking ecosystem condition to management actions. The governance accounts described in TG-3.7 Governance Accounts complement ecological and economic accounts by documenting management inputs and processes.

Coastal development plans: Municipal and provincial governments planning coastal development require information on the trade-offs between development and ecosystem services. Sub-national accounts quantify these trade-offs by showing how ecosystem extent and condition changes affect the flow of ecosystem services (coastal protection, fish provisioning, recreation) and the economic and social consequences for local communities.

Disaster risk management: Coastal communities face risks from storms, flooding, and sea-level rise. Sub-national accounts documenting the extent and condition of protective ecosystems (mangroves, coral reefs, salt marshes), the economic assets at risk, and the population exposure support disaster risk assessment and adaptation planning (see TG-2.9 Disaster Risk Indicators).

Aggregation and national consistency

A fundamental principle of sub-national accounting is that sub-national accounts should aggregate to national totals. This principle ensures that sub-national information is consistent with national reporting and that national accounts can be disaggregated to reveal sub-national patterns. The SEEA EA states that the choice of geographical area and entities should support the potential to compare results over time and in different locations^[1:3].

In practice, exact aggregation is achievable for extent accounts (the sum of ecosystem extent across all sub-national areas equals the national extent) and for economic accounts compiled using top-down allocation (by construction, sub-national values sum to national totals). Condition accounts do not aggregate in the same way--the national condition index is not the simple sum of sub-national condition indices but rather a spatial average (area-weighted or otherwise) across sub-national areas. Compilers should document the aggregation methods used and any discrepancies between bottom-up aggregation of sub-national accounts and independently compiled national accounts. Discrepancies themselves are informative, often revealing data gaps or methodological inconsistencies that warrant investigation.

3.5 Dashboard Design for Local Decision-Makers

Sub-national ocean accounts generate data that must be communicated effectively to local decision-makers--provincial governors, municipal mayors, marine park managers, coastal zone management authorities. These users typically require concise, visually accessible summaries rather than detailed accounting tables, organised around the management questions relevant to their jurisdiction.

Principles of dashboard design

Effective sub-national ocean account dashboards follow several design principles drawn from the combined presentations guidance in TG-3.8 Combined Presentations, adapted for local audiences:

Management-question orientation: Dashboards should be organised around the specific management questions facing local decision-makers, not around accounting structures. A marine park manager's dashboard might be organised around the question "Is the park achieving its conservation objectives?", with indicators drawn from extent accounts (is ecosystem extent being maintained?), condition accounts (is ecosystem health improving?), governance accounts (are management interventions being implemented?), and social accounts (are local communities benefiting?).

Spatial visualisation: Sub-national accounts are inherently spatial, and dashboards should exploit this by presenting information as maps wherever possible. Maps of ecosystem extent and condition, spatial distribution of economic activity, and location of management interventions provide intuitive presentations for local decision-makers familiar with their geography. The EU INCA programme demonstrated the value of map-based dashboards for communicating ecosystem accounts to regional policy-makers^[2:5].

Trend emphasis: Local decision-makers need to know whether things are getting better or worse in their jurisdiction. Dashboards should emphasise trends over time rather than static snapshots, using simple directional indicators (arrows, traffic lights, sparklines) to communicate change.

Benchmarking: Where sub-national accounts are compiled for multiple areas, dashboards can include comparative information--how does this province compare to other coastal provinces? How does this marine park's condition index compare to other parks? Benchmarking enables identification of best practices and areas requiring additional attention.

Illustrative dashboard structure

The following table illustrates a dashboard structure for a provincial coastal zone, drawing indicators from multiple account types.

Table 3.11.7: Illustrative sub-national ocean accounts dashboard (Provincial Coastal Zone)

From dashboard to action

Dashboards are communication tools, not ends in themselves. Their value depends on the extent to which they inform management decisions. Compilers should work with local decision-makers to identify the specific decisions that dashboard indicators will inform, establish indicator thresholds or targets that trigger management responses, and create feedback loops between management actions and subsequent account updates that demonstrate whether interventions are achieving their intended effects.

For example, the dashboard above reveals that the province's ocean economy is growing in GVA and employment terms, but this growth is occurring alongside declining ecosystem condition and unsustainable fisheries extraction. The mangrove restoration programme is succeeding (mangrove extent increasing against the national trend), demonstrating that targeted management interventions can reverse ecosystem decline. A policy response might include extending the restoration approach to seagrass and coral reef ecosystems, reducing fishing effort to bring catch within sustainable limits, and investing in water quality improvement to address the declining condition index. Subsequent accounting periods would reveal whether these interventions are effective, creating an adaptive management cycle informed by sub-national ocean accounts.

The country case studies in TG-5.1 Indonesia and TG-5.6 Australia -- Geographe Bay provide examples of sub-national ocean accounting in practice, demonstrating how accounts compiled for specific regions or sites have been used to inform local management decisions.

Implementation Considerations

For minimum institutional capacity, data infrastructure, and human skills requirements for compiling these accounts, see TG-0.8 Implementation Readiness Assessment.

4. Acknowledgements

This Circular has been approved for public circulation and comment by the GOAP Technical Experts Group in accordance with the Circular Publication Procedure.

Authors: [To be confirmed]

Reviewers: [To be confirmed]

5. References