Abstract Special attention has been paid to sustainable macroalgae cultivation in Europe. The question on where suitable cultivation areas lie, without conflicting with current marine socio-economic activities and respecting the environment, remains a great challenge. Considering 13 criteria critical to seaweed farming such as depth, shipping traffic, and distance to ports, this paper aimed to identify suitable and sustainable offshore areas on the West Coast of Sweden for the cultivation of the Sugar Kelp, Saccharina latissima. An integrated approach with the tools geographic information systems (GIS) and multi-criteria analysis (MCA) was used to aggregate the criteria by means of Boolean and weighted linear combination (WLC) techniques. The Boolean method singled out 544 km2 as suitable, whereas the WLC method indicated 475 km2 as highly suitable. Both techniques complement each other in finding optimal sites. Furthermore, the integrated models excelled in providing an overview for effective spatial decision-making that fosters sustainable development of macroalgae cultivations within marine and coastal systems. Highlights To the authors’ knowledge no study on seaweed aquaculture site selection has been conducted using such a range of criteria with the purpose of including sustainability aspects within a comparative GIS-MCDA. The large areas identified on the West Coast of Sweden as suitable highlight the potential of this new industry and the complexity of associated marine spatial planning. Boolean and weighted linear combination methods were applied and compared, providing valuable insights in the selection of methods for spatial decision-making support. These insights should support a more sustainable development of macroalgae cultivation in the region, as well as a more resilient marine spatial planning process for blue growth strategies.

中文翻译：

---

在瑞典西海岸确定适合大型藻类养殖的地点

摘要 欧洲对大型藻类的可持续栽培给予了特别关注。在不与当前的海洋社会经济活动发生冲突并尊重环境的前提下，适宜的养殖区在哪里，仍然是一个巨大的挑战。考虑到对海藻养殖至关重要的 13 项标准，例如深度、航运交通和到港口的距离，本文旨在确定瑞典西海岸适合种植 Saccharina latissima 海藻的近海区域。使用地理信息系统 (GIS) 和多标准分析 (MCA) 工具的集成方法通过布尔和加权线性组合 (WLC) 技术汇总标准。布尔方法选择了 544 平方公里作为合适的区域，而 WLC 方法表明 475 平方公里非常适合。这两种技术在寻找最佳位置方面相互补充。此外，集成模型在为促进海洋和沿海系统内大型藻类养殖的可持续发展的有效空间决策提供概述方面表现出色。亮点 据作者所知，尚未使用此类标准对海藻水产养殖地点选择进行研究，其目的是将可持续性方面纳入比较 GIS-MCDA。瑞典西海岸被确定为合适的大片区域突出了这一新兴产业的潜力以及相关海洋空间规划的复杂性。布尔和加权线性组合方法被应用和比较，为空间决策支持方法的选择提供有价值的见解。这些见解应支持该地区大型藻类种植的更可持续发展，以及蓝色增长战略的更具弹性的海洋空间规划过程。