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¹ University of Carthage, National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies (INSTM), Aquaculture Laboratory, LR16INSTM03, 2025, Salammbô, Tunisia
² University Hassan II, Geosciences Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences Ain Chock, Casablanca 20100, Morocco DOI : 10.4194/TRJFAS30435 Viewed : 207 - Downloaded : 160 Offshore aquaculture is increasingly viewed as a strategic solution to food security and coastal space constraints, but the identification of suitable sites remains a major challenge, especially at early planning stages. This study presents a rapid pre-screening framework for offshore aquaculture site selection by integrating numerical wave modeling with GIS-based spatial multi-criteria evaluation. The framework uses three primary criteria: wave exposure, water depth, and distance to the nearest harbor. Significant wave height was simulated with the SWAN model, forced by WAVEWATCH III boundary conditions, and combined with bathymetric and logistical layers to generate suitability maps for the central-eastern coast of Tunisia. Results show that 18.12% of the study area was classified as highly suitable according to wave conditions, while the final scenario-based suitability analysis identified 11% (491.13 km²) as appropriate for offshore aquaculture development. The proposed framework demonstrates that open-access datasets and widely used modeling tools can efficiently reduce the spatial search area and support early-stage marine spatial planning. It offers a transferable and cost-effective decision-support approach for identifying candidate zones for offshore aquaculture in data-limited coastal regions. Keywords : Offshore aquaculture Site suitability Wave modelling GIS