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Abstract
Many Mediterranean coastal areas encounter similar problems and gaps between science, governance, and implementation of sustainable management at local-regional scales. There is often a lack of coordination between management of inland and coastal areas, and a lack of integrated land-sea data and knowledge exchange to support transitions towards sustainable development and synergies between rural and coastal areas. In this paper, we illustrate the main challenges to reach a sustainable development of coastal-rural areas related to data availability, knowledge exchange and governance, which could be tackled by coupling regional and international research infrastructures (RIs) with scientific and stakeholder collaboration networks to facilitate knowledge exchange and co-creation of solutions. We first identified the main challenges in sustainable development of coastal-rural areas followed by a review of major existing RIs, scientific knowledge and collaboration networks that can help support integrated management of Mediterranean coastal zones. Based on this, we developed recommendations for a better integration of RIs and collaboration networks in the management of coastal-rural areas, including (1) the creation of local networks to facilitate periodical meetings between all sectors involved and to connect science and policy actors and (2) setting up local RIs that support the data processing and the use of regional and international RIs by scientists and policy stakeholders.
Highlights
Coastal areas are very useful laboratories to study global change for several reasons
There have been many efforts to collect information that allows us to better understand how coastal systems work, like monitoring observatories, process simulation models, integration of different data sources, participatory processes, etc (Piroddi et al 2015, Patrício et al 2016). All these efforts have some traits of the concept of research infrastructures (RIs), which refers to facilities that help leverage the creation of scientific knowledge
The methodology followed consists of: (i) the identification of the main management challenges in coastal areas based on a literature review, (ii) an inventory of the main existing RIs, scientific knowledge and collaboration networks related to Mediterranean coastal environments to explore their potential as facilitators of the knowledge exchange between scientists and policy stakeholders, and (iii) the development of recommendations for the implementation of more effective coupling between scientific knowledge and decision making in coastal areas linking international and regional RIs with local networks and management initiatives
Summary
Soil Erosion and Conservation Research Group, CEBAS-CSIC, Spanish Research Council Campus de Espinardo, Murcia E-30100, PO Box 164, Spain. Hydraulic Engineering Area, Department of Agronomy, University of Córdoba, Rabanales Campus, Leonardo da Vinci Building, Córdoba E-14071, Spain. Ecology Area, University of Córdoba, Rabanales, Celestino Mutis Building, Córdoba E-14071, Spain. Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed
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