Application of a co-design process on a nature-based intervention in the coastal system of Texel, the Netherlands

Abstract

The field of coastal management is characterized by a strong collaborative tradition and a willingness on the part of the coastal authorities who embrace listening and actively engaging with stakeholders. Nowadays, coastal policy making in the Netherlands is aiming for enhancing collaboration between different types of actors (e.g. local experts, specialized scientists, policy makers), to for integration at the level of the interface between scientific challenges and societal problems. In this paper we report case-specific, participatory co-design process that occurred in Texel, the Netherlands, where local stakeholders were asked to collaboratively design (“co-design”) utopian and dystopian future visions. We applied an action-type method that addresses the need for empirical exploration of underlying stakeholder values. Professionals with specialized expertise joined in transdisciplinary activities for co-design iteratively towards feasible solutions. Final designs were validated by local participants on value-consistency. A number of considerations contributed to the success of this collaborative and transdisciplinary approach: working directly and locally with local stakeholders; appreciating the local knowledge, stakeholder preferences and underlying stakeholder values; prioritizing a multi-directional flow of information; and engaging professional multidisciplinary specialists in the social-ecological system. Experiences gained from this approach can be used as input for next iterations of collaborative design activities, for the Texel coast and elsewhere.