Stakeholder Analysis for Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study from the Living Lab Schouwen-Duiveland, The Netherlands

Monika Suškevičs, Joost Swiers, Julia Prakofjewa, Renata Sõukand () and Baiba Prūse ()
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Monika Suškevičs: Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Fr. R. Kreutzwaldi 5, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
Joost Swiers: &flux B.V., Goudsesingel 66, 3011 KD Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Julia Prakofjewa: Biocultural Diversity Lab, Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics & Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, Mestre, 30172 Venice, Italy
Renata Sõukand: Biocultural Diversity Lab, Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics & Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, Mestre, 30172 Venice, Italy
Baiba Prūse: MaREI, The Research Ireland Centre for Energy, Climate, and Marine, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, P43 C573 Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-21

Abstract: Extreme climate events like droughts and floods are creating urgent challenges for sectors such as Agriculture or water management. Effective adaptation requires stakeholder collaboration, supported by stakeholder analysis (SA) methods, which are still evolving in environmental management. We briefly reviewed examples of recent existing systematic evidence syntheses on SA across different domains. This highlighted several SA challenges, including the lack of transparent, common methods—particularly for climate-induced extreme events—and weak links between SA results and policy or practice. We then present a case study that illustrates these challenges and suggests ways to address them. Cooperating with a local network organisation, the Living Lab Schouwen-Duiveland (LAB), we conducted a case study on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland (NL), which is trying to adapt to drought. Applying a novel stakeholder analysis method, the “Rings of involvement”, which enables the visualisation of stakeholders’ levels of affectedness regarding the issue, we were able to identify and categorise the stakeholder network in a systematic manner. We identified stakeholder groups, such as “Implementers”, who are not yet in the network but likely hold key practical knowledge to address local-regional climate adaptation. This calls for a better institutionalisation of and a more dynamic approach to SA in the local climate change adaptation practices. Based on our case study, we suggest that future studies could explore under which conditions a network organisation (such as the LAB) acts as a dynamic platform for facilitating stakeholder knowledge co-production.

Keywords: stakeholder analysis; climate change; drought; vulnerability; decision-support tool; living lab (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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