Towards 2050: Road Maps for Land-Sea Synergy - Increasing economic development while reducing the environmental impacts

By combining local knowledge and scientific expertise in a co-creation process, the COASTAL multi-actor research and innovation project engages actors and stakeholders to develop practical business opportunities and policy solutions by improved coastal-rural collaboration. This will be done by identifying problems and setting up evidence-based business roadmaps and policy solutions, focusing on economic growth, marine spatial planning, and environmental protection, including inland water quality.

Multi-Actor Labs (MALs) in the project are co-creation platforms in which experts, economic operators and administrations collaborate to define the different opportunities and synergies for joint rural and coastal development. The MALs are centred around six selected coastal regions with their specific opportunities and challenges: Belgian Coastal Zone, South-West Messinia, Norrström/Baltic, Charente River Basin, Danube Mouth and River Basin, Mar Menor Coastal Lagoon.

During this process the MAL participants will: a) identify the relevant economic, social, and environmental processes influencing land-sea interactions b) identify the obstacles and opportunities for economic and administrative synergy between the coastal zone and hinterland c) propose business and policy solutions to address the issues identified. The results produced by the MALs will be used in a systems-dynamics approach to identify underpinned, long-term strategies for improving regional development, spatial planning, and coastal-rural synergy. Feedback from MAL participants will allow refining this analysis in a second stage of the project.

Project outcomes:

• in-depth understanding of the mid- and long-term impacts of coastal-rural synergy and related systemic transitions
• evidence-based business road maps and policy solutions with relevant indicators
• an online platform for coastal-rural knowledge exchange
• tools, examples and practice abstracts demonstrating the added value of coastal-rural synergy