(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution has awarded its first Innovation in Technology and ECR Award to the MarineMap Consortium, a group that brings together partners from UC Santa Barbara, Ecotrust, and The Nature Conservancy. The award was presented at the Institute's ECR 2010 conference in Tucson, Ariz.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."We are grateful for this recognition," said Will McClintock, director of the MarineMap Consortium and a project scientist with the Marine Science Institute at UCSB. "We are thrilled to develop a technology that invites the public to the table on important environmental decisions."The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution is a program of the Udall Foundation, an independent federal agency based in Tucson. The award was presented to McClintock by Mark Schaefer of the Udall Foundation.See Also:Youtube Video about MarineMap