Sectoral analysis of coastal and rural development - combining knowledge to expand understanding

The following article describes the approach, results and lessons learned from 36 sectoral participatory stakeholder workshops in six case study areas across Europe (three coastal and three rural in each case area). Here, we explored the relevant land-sea interactions from a coastal or rural perspective, taking into consideration the motivations and barriers for collaboration, as well as the positive and negative externalities in co-production with relevant stakeholders. The participants included policy makers, business entrepreneurs, sector representatives, and domain experts. The case areas were located in Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Romania, France and Spain. In this article, we discuss the results from these workshops, focusing on the co-creation process, the science-policy-industry exchanges, cross-cutting results from the direct involvement of local actors to ensure a full understanding of the local systems as seen in a wider regional perspective and how this is translated into the modelling process. Some observations from case areas centered for example on a frustration over the lack of tourism in the off-season, often leading to empty hotels and lack of employment for those that come in for the summer season. This is in many places also coupled with an aging population, though in Greece, the economic crisis to extent changed this with many young people moving home again for financial reasons. Regulatory fragmentation also played a role in many of the workshops, where the perception that regulatory agencies worked next to each other but never coordinated activities was apparent in many of the workshops as well.