To evaluate the potential use of the OHI+ as a tool to assess progress of the SWMP area, OHI+ datasets were associated to MMO draft policy statements (version 3, the most recent available at the time of writing).

 

The SWMP draft document contains 74 policy statements, categorised into Environment (n = 33), Social (n = 19) and Economic
(n = 22) sub-groups. Prior to the mapping exercise, each policy statement was read and specific ‘topic areas’ identified using the methods detailed here. Each policy statement was then assessed against the OHI+ using a decision tree to examine the capacity of the OHI+ assessment to reflect the breadth of issues covered in the SWMP. Of the 74 SWMP policies , 35 were considered to have ‘high’ relevance to the OHI+ SW  model. Seven policies were moderately relevant (‘medium’), 14 policies had ‘low’ representation and 18 did not overlap with any aspects of the OHI+ model framework. You can read more on the policy mapping methods and findings here or view high level results below.