COASTAL (Collaborative land sea integration platform) project held in Brussels from June 5th – June 8th 2018.
COASTAL is a unique collaboration of 29 partners from 8 EU Member States, representing coastal and rural business entrepreneurs, administrations, and scientific experts.
ABOUT THE PROJECT: By combining local knowledge and scientific expertise in a co-creation process the COASTAL project engages actors and stakeholders at all levels to improve coastal-rural interdependence and collaboration 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.
THE PROCESS:
- Local actors and experts participate in collaborative exercises to analyse problems, the underlying causes, propose and discuss solutions, and validate and interpret the impacts of simulated business and policy decisions.
- Qualitative and quantitative techniques are combined in this co-creation process supported by graphical tools to gain in-depth understanding of the systemic transitions underlying the land-sea interactions.
- These systemic transitions will be synthesized and analyzed with system dynamic models to produce multiple transition scenarios for key business and policy indicators.
- From these practical business roadmaps and policy solutions are derived, which are easily updated in the models used to support the analyses.
Dr. Ebun Akinsete represented the ICRE8 team at the kick-off meeting for the EU-funded COASTAL (Collaborative lAnd Sea inTegration pLatform) project held in Brussels from June 5th – June 8th 2018. The project which is funded under the H2020 programme, aims to formulate and evaluate business solutions and policy recommendations aimed at improving the coastal-rural synergy to foster rural and coastal development while preserving the environment. The meeting was hosted by project coordinators VITO (VLAAMSE INSTELLING VOOR TECHNOLOGISCH ONDERZOEK N.V.) and was well attended, with representation from all research partners as well as key actors from the COASTAL case study sites. In addition, presentations were made by representatives of DG-AGRI and DG-MARE, providing insight into a policy perspective as well as expectations from the project. The kick-off meeting was combined with a training workshop for case-study leaders, seizing the opportunity to familiarize the various case study teams with stakeholder facilitation and mental map development methodologies adopted by the project.
For more information on the COASTAL project please visit our website at https://dafne.ethz.ch.