Collaborative lAnd Sea inTegration pLatform

Project Information

COASTAL

Grant agreement ID: 773782

DOI

10.3030/773782

Project closed

EC signature date 27 April 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 4 999 943,75

EU contribution

€ 4 999 943,75

Coordinated by

VLAAMSE INSTELLING VOOR TECHNOLOGISCH ONDERZOEK N.V.
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - COASTAL (Collaborative lAnd Sea inTegration pLatform)

Reporting period: 2021-05-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

COASTAL contributes to improved alignment of rural, coastal and marine policy, fostering sustainable regional development and minimizing the environmental impacts (with special focus on water quality) of activities. Existing research still primarily addresses issues from either a coastal- or rural-based perspective, making policy recommendations ill-adapted to support land-sea integration at the local, regional and macro-regional scale. The project brought coastal and rural economic operators, stakeholders and administrations together to develop practical market opportunities, business road maps and policy strategies. COASTAL addressed six objectives:

- engage local and regional business entrepreneurs, administrations, stakeholders, and scientific experts in a multi-actor process for knowledge exchange
- quantify the physical, socio-economic and environmental coastal-rural interactions in the six representative case studies, and make this knowledge applicable for holistic policy support
- derive practical business road maps and policy actions aimed at improving coastal-rural synergies and development
- develop, validate and apply generic, qualitative and quantitative tools for evaluating and comparing business and policy solutions
- deliver scenarios to explore the driving conditions and transition pathways that explore barriers and motivators for coastal and rural development, transferable to other regions of Europe
- disseminate and exploit the project outcomes to the local, regional, national, and EU level.


Some important conclusions and recommendations can be drawn from the project outcomes and feedback collected from the final project event:

- The combination of multi-actor analysis with System Thinking and systems modelling is a powerful approach for developing holistic, evidence-based business road maps and policy guidelines.
- Integrating qualitative with quantitative data, tools and expertise is a challenge. Here again Systems Thinking and SD modelling can be useful as framework for analysis.
- Future projects with a similar ambition and methodology may benefit from centralized support for modelling, with more emphasis on spatial data and spatial modelling.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The regional Multi-Actor Labs in Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Romania and Greece addressed land-sea interactions in a collaboration of 29 coastal and rural partners representing the farming sector, offshore (blue) industry, the tourism sector, environmental agencies and water agencies, as well as knowledge partners. Co-creation sessions were successful in identifying and prioritizing problems and opportunities from the perspective of the stakeholder participants. During the final reporting period the activities shifted towards consolidating the land-sea models, the and formulation of consistent scenarios for drivers of change. While developing these models the regional Multi-Actor Labs managed to engage coastal and rural stakeholders, administrations and economic operators to develop synergistic policy guidelines and business road maps towards a sustainable future, tested for their robustness to cope with uncertain events and trends related to climate change, economic development, innovation and land-use change. This is a significant success with a high potential for exploitation. In less than 4.5 years the project resulted in a total of 33 research and policy-oriented deliverables, over 50 scientific publications, and a large number of qualitative and quantitative datasets which are made publicly available in an open data repository (https://zenodo.org/communities/773782-coastal/). Outreach actions included policy briefs, practice abstracts, newsletters, social media activities, presentations through the project website, scientific conferences, online events and and other dissemination channels. The main outcomes of the project are:

- Improved, holistic understanding of the social-economic and environmental land-sea interactions, and their influence on the mid- and long-term impact on policy interventions and business decisions.
- The creation of a toolbox of qualitative and quantitative instruments for supporting sustainable regional development in coastal and rural regions, including tutorial examples and best practices.
- A broad set of representative and evidence-based business road maps and policy recommendations, which have been shock tested for exogenous and uncertain factors (climate change, economic crisis, land use change, …).
- Capacity building and training of local and regional networks of stakeholders, economic operators, researchers and policy representatives in holistic policy development.

COASTAL was concluded with a 3-day final event in Ostend, consisting of an exhibition/network event for the project partners, a scientific conference, and field trips. A general, very positive observation was the commitment expressed by all project partners to continue and apply the COASTAL approach in their work and activities, despite of the challenging trajectory followed to familiarize themselves with the systems thinking methodology. Phrased otherwise: the project has changed their way of thinking and will have an impact on their work. The final conference was also used to promote the new Knowledge Exchange Platform or KEP (https://coastal-xchange.eu) showcase functionalities and clarify the collaboration model behind the KEP.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

COASTAL supports strategic coastal-rural planning by problem-driven engagement of stakeholders, including administrations, NGOs and business entrepreneurs. These interacted to identify problems and opportunities, design mental models for holistic solutions, and test scientific concepts. What makes COASTAL different is the processing into evidence-based policy models, increasing the practical value business and policy recommendations. A well-balanced combination of tools is used to take the short- and long-term impacts of policy decisions and business investments on coastal and rural development into account. The socio-economic impact of this ambitious project should not be underestimated. At the local, regional and national scale the implementation of EU regulatory frameworks aimed at mitigation and adaptation to the impacts of climate change, sustainable food production and fair use of increasingly scarce or uncertain resources such as water, space and energy. Fragmentation of knowledge, data and administrative responsibilities is known to impede the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental decision making. This is particularly true for complex systems involving multiple socio-environmental interactions such as the coastal regions participating in COASTAL. Systems Thinking and modelling is worth the effort as it helps identify opportunities for economic development which are overlooked otherwise, spot tipping points and key policy levers, and avoid unanticipated problems. A general, very positive observation made during the final event was the strong commitment expressed by all project partners to continue and apply the COASTAL approach in their work and activities, despite of the challenging trajectory followed to familiarize themselves with the systems thinking methodology. Phrased otherwise: the project has changed their way of thinking and has a significant impact on their future work and that of their stakeholders.

Geographical distribution of the six Multi-Actor Labs (case studies).

Interaction of work packages and project workflow