TY - UNPB ID - theses_frw3625 A1 - Zijlstra, Femke Y1 - 2021/// TI - Public Participation in MSP: Testing the Waters AV - public N2 - A growing amount of human activities at sea leads towards increasing numbers of conflict about the use of sea space. In the case of the North Sea, especially off-shore wind farms start to take over the available sea space. An important reason for the increasing number of wind farms is the pressure to meet sustainability goals. However, the North Sea is being used for more activities requiring space, activities like fishing, shipping and recreation. Multi-functional use of available sea space forms a promising solution to create added value for all these uses. Whereas stakeholders such as energy producers and commercial shipping often have a great financial or national interest, these interests are limited in the case of public users (referred to as recreational users). This study aims to identify the opportunities and barriers regarding the involvement of public users in the multi-use of off-shore wind farms along the Dutch coast. Hereby exploring the possibilities to enhance the engagement of recreational users in the marine spatial planning process. A qualitative policy document analysis showed that the Dutch government presents limited details about the way recreational use of the sea is integrated in their marine spatial plan and how users are involved, thereby dealing reactively with the input provided by recreational users. However, conducting a user survey showed that the willingness to be involved is widely present among recreational users and their ideas on how multi-use could look like are abundant. Still, recreational users' chances to be involved should be improved. M1 - master EP - 64 UR - https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/3625/ ER -