Land-sea interactions advancing Blue Growth in Baltic Sea coastal areas

EU and Baltic Sea Regional (BSR) policies highlight the importance of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), Blue Growth (BG) and sustainable management of coastal areas. BG can help to tackle development challenges in coastal areas like reduced fishing, depopulation and human impacts on environment. Coastal municipalities and regions in BSR seek for economic diversification and more efficient use of available marine natural and cultural resources.

MSP is established as an effective tool to foster integrated planning in marine areas, while coherence with land-based development planning is still recognised as a key challenge and at the same time – precondition for BG. This coherence problem is especially relevant when a new development activity depends on or influences other uses and interests in the sea or on land, thus creating a conflict or limiting growth.Another challenge for authorities is to define characteristics of spatial (local, regional, etc.) scales and temporal (short, middle, long term) perspectives of the land-sea interactions (LSI) and to propose solutions.

While MSP mainly focuses on a large scale and long-term perspectives, LSI are often addressed locally and on ad hoc basis.

Integration versus thematic and sectoral approaches in planning needs to be enhanced to achieve the objectives of BG. Relationships and inter-dependencies between marine ecosystems, landscapes, social and cultural values and economic sectors are recognised, however not fully taken into account in the context of LSI.

The project Land-Sea-Act will guide national public bodies (ministries, agencies), coastal regional authorities and local municipalities and multi-sectoral stakeholders to:

• improve transnational cooperation and foster BG and facilitate knowledge exchange to empower less developed regions;
• raise capacity (awareness, knowledge and skills) to enhance Blue Growth initiatives and integrated development in coastal areas;
• balance development of new sea uses with coastal community interests by improving inter-scalar and cross-sectoral coastal governance in all BSR.

Through demonstration cases on the identified LSI challenges the project partners and involved stakeholders will closely collaborate to explore and recommend new flexible coastal governance practices with main scope on proposing spatial and entrepreneurship tailored solutions to be applicable on each governance level in all BSR countries. We will apply a range of methods with strong focus on participatory and transdisciplinary approaches to tackle the described challenges of local, regional and transnational relevance. Therefore, the coastal planning authorities and developers of BG initiatives in the BSR region will have gained additional knowledge and skills to solve common LSI challenges. The project work will culminate with an outcome of new Multi-level Governance Agenda on Blue Growth and Spatial Planning in BSR beyond 2020.

The main results of the project are:

•           Compendium of methodologies on how to address land-sea interactions and development trade-offs in coastal areas;

•           Blue Growth Check: Mapping the Blue Economy in the Case Study Regions;

•           Action Plan “Entrepreneurship and Blue Growth”;

•           Policy brief on key messages on LSI and Blue Growth initiatives;

•           Multi-level Governance Agenda on Blue Growth and Spatial Planning in BSR;

•           Synthesis About Coastal Governance: Based on Land Sea Act Project Cases;

Land Sea Act project partners worked in six geographical case studies with specific issues - results can be found in six case reports and additional materials:

• "Balancing coastal tourism and use of off-shore wind energy in Southwestern Kurzeme" (Latvia)
  • Visit map explorer
  • Click to read about the case study
  • Read in Latvian “Guidelines for coastal planners 2021”
• “Integrating cultural values in Marine Spatial Planning and the Blue Growth” (Gulf of Gdansk, Poland)
  • Read Guidebook in English “Tourist attractions of the municipalities of Gdansk Bay 2020”
  • Click to read about the case study
• "Coastal conflicts, climate impacts and adaptation" (Fehmarn, Germany)
  • Read brochure in German “Relaxed & Sustainable Holiday in Fehmarn”
  • Click to read about the case study
• "Integrated coastal tourism and mobility planning" (Northern coast, Estonia)

• "Draft for a Regional Maritime Strategy for the Gothenburg Region (Orust and Uddevalla)" (Sweden)
  • Read about mapping and analysis of maritime businesses’ need for land and water areas in the Gothenburg region
  • Click to read about the case study
• "Harbour business development" (Holbæk, Denmark)
  • Visit Land-Sea Art catalogue and tool
  • Click to read about the case study

All project results are available on the Land-Sea Act website.

Project partners

• Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia
• County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland - Sweden
• Environmental Department of Fehmarn Municipality - Germany
• Holbæk Municipality - Denmark
• Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities – Sweden
• Tallinn University - Estonia
• Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences - Poland
• Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) - Germany
• Baltic Environmental Forum - Latvia
• Baltic Environmental Forum Germany
• Association of the Coastal Towns and Municipalities – Poland

ASSOCIATED Organisations

• Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments - Latvia
• Haljala municipality - Estonia