Aquaculture has the potential to address the gap between aquatic food demand and supply and to help countries achieve their economic, social and environmental goals, thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda (Hambrey, 2017; FAO, 2017c).However, the growth of aquaculture raises a number of questions in relation to the resources that it consumes (e.g. space, feedstuffs), its products (see "Fish for food security and human nutrition” in Part 2) and the threats that the sector faces from external factors such as climate change and disease. Spatial planning should integrate social, economic, environmental and governance objectives of sustainable development in accordance with the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (FAO, 1995). The ecosystem approach to aquaculture (see section on this topic in Part 2) and blue growth (see Part 4) are useful frameworks in this context (FAO and World Bank, 2015).