Coastal Water Mangement Towards a New Spatial Agenda for the North Sea Region Region the North Sea for Spatial Agenda a New Towards European Union The European Regional Development Fund Coastal Water Management Towards a New Spatial Agenda for the North Sea Region Prepared for Interreg IIIB North Sea Region Programme by Resource Analysis, IMDC, PLANCO, ATKINS, INREGIA Authors: Elke Claus, Holger Platz, Michael Viehhauser, Jon McCue, Koen Trouw and Barbara De Kezel 37, Wilrijkstraat 2140 Antwerpen, Belgium Tel: +32 3 270 00 30 E-mail: [email protected] TOWARDS A NEW SPATIAL AGENDA FOR THE NORTH SEA REGION Between 1998 and 2001, a spatial vision for the North Sea Region was developed, based on the principles of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP). NorVision, as it was called, is a key advisory document, which has strongly influenced territorial cooperation in the North Sea Region. It describes the existing state of spatial development and suggests directions for the future. Projects that have been developed under INTERREG IIIB NSR put many of them into practice In mid 2004 the Programme Monitoring Committee for the Interreg IIIB North Sea Programme decided that there should be a selective update to NorVision to have valuable strategic input for the future cooperation in North Sea Region. They agreed that the original NorVision document continues to be relevant and should not be evaluated or reworked. The new spatial agenda, as is has become known, should focus on issues, which have become more urgent or important in recent years or which have not been thoroughly addressed in the original document. A Working Group consisting of one national and one regional representative per country was set up and discussed the procedure and topics to be addressed. The idea was not to have a complete analysis of the subject concerned, but to develop a more focused approach, which could be used to inform the future programme and which might form the basis for future co-operation projects until 2010. The working group agreed upon the following topics for which studies were carried out: ¾ Coastal Water Management ¾ Transport and Accessibility ¾ Facilitating Innovation and transfer of knowledge and technology ¾ Energy* ¾ Demographic Change* * Energy and Demographic Change were smaller studies than the other three This is the final report for the study on Coastal Water Management The findings of these five studies have been summarised and make up part of the synthesis report, which will be adopted by the Programming Monitoring Committee and will be published together with each of the final reports. The synthesis document sits alongside and complements the original Norvison document. Further information is available from: Interreg IIIB North Sea Region Programme Secretariat Jernbanegade 22 DK - 8800 Viborg Denmark Tel +45 87 27 19 99 Fax +45 86 60 16 80 www.InterregNorthSea.org Disclaimer: The following text summarises the results of research on the update of the spatial perspective for the North Sea Region, Norvision. Please note that experts have prepared the content and that as such it does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the North Sea Programme or the Working Group. INDEX 1. Readers’ guide...........................................................................................................................1 2. Summary of conclusions and recommendations ...................................................................3 3. Project Background...................................................................................................................5 3.1 The Programme.................................................................................................................5 3.2 The Update........................................................................................................................5 4. Methodology ..............................................................................................................................7 5. Coastal water management as a policy theme in the North Sea Region...............................9 6. Answers to the tOR questions................................................................................................11 6.1 What are the main spatial challenges regarding coastal waters for the North Sea Region until 2010?...........................................................................................................11 6.2 What is the degree of knowledge of these issues by key players in the field? .................15 6.3 What is the degree of coverage of these issues by existing policies, strategies and investment plans?............................................................................................................16 6.4 To what extent could trans-national co-operation meet these challenges? Which of the challenges will benefit from trans-national co-operation within the North Sea Region? ...........................................................................................................................18 6.5 Who would benefit/participate in such co-operation?.......................................................18 6.6 What sort of activities/investments would be valuable to undertake?...............................20 6.7 What partners outside the North Sea Region would be crucial to consult or to co- operate with? ...................................................................................................................34 6.8 In what way should this theme be formulated in order to get the most out of trans- national spatial development co-operation in a new programming period?......................34 7. Appendices ..............................................................................................................................37 7.1 Appendix 1: List with contact details per region ...............................................................37 7.1.1 Flanders (Belgium) ...........................................................................................38 7.1.2 The Netherlands ...............................................................................................39 7.1.3 England ............................................................................................................40 7.1.4 Scotland ...........................................................................................................41 7.1.5 Germany...........................................................................................................42 7.1.6 Denmark...........................................................................................................45 7.1.7 Norway .............................................................................................................46 7.1.8 Sweden ............................................................................................................47 7.2 Appendix 2: List with revised documents for the desk research.......................................48 7.2.1 Project documents Project documents .............................................................48 NorVision: Coastal Water Management | 6031-51-035-04 i 7.2.2 Flanders (Belgium) ...........................................................................................48 7.2.3 The Netherlands ...............................................................................................48 7.2.4 England and Scotland ......................................................................................48 7.2.5 Germany...........................................................................................................50 7.2.6 Denmark...........................................................................................................50 7.2.7 Norway .............................................................................................................50 7.2.8 Sweden ............................................................................................................50 ii 6031-51-035-04 | NorVision: Coastal Water Management 1. READERS’ GUIDE This document reports on the findings far with regard to the assignment “Updating Norvision” Study 1 – Coastal Water management, issued by the Interreg North Sea Programme Secretariat. The term “coastal water management” will be understood here in a wide sense, covering • all elements of seaside coastal areas (the sea bottom, the water body, the water surface), and their different uses • offshore areas in some distance from the coast • the interlink between land- and sea-side (water-land interdependency). The present document has the following structure. First, we explain the background of this report and the assignment behind it (Chapter 3). Secondly, we dwell on the methodology that was followed in order to provide the inputs for the present draft version of the final report on “Updating NorVision” Study 1 – Coastal Water Management” (Chapter 4). Then, we provide an introduction to the policy theme that is key to the updating exercise in question, namely “Coastal Water Management” (Chapter 5). Afterwards, we present an overview of main trends and challenges to which Coastal Water Management in the North Sea Region is/becomes exposed (Paragraph 6.1). The next part addresses answers to further questions of the TOR. (Paragraph 6.2-6.7) Finally, we draw conclusions with regard to the questions posed in the TOR and we forward policy and project recommendations (Paragraph 6.8). Two Appendices complete the report; one with the list