An absence of coordinated policies across Europe for the environmental and socio-economic impact assessment (IA) of wave energy projects is seen by many as an obstacle to the development of the wave energy sector. The generation of IA tools that facilitate the decision-making process by providing easy to access and understand data is encouraged. The SOWFIA project aims to capitalize upon the experiences of IA from EU wave energy test sites by developing a GIS-based Data Management Platform (DMP).