Urbanization Dynamics of European Coasts: Implications for Innovation Policy

Article focuses on studying the worldwide patterns of coastalization and urbanizationin the scope of Europe. The research objective is to verify the hypothesis of increasing densityof population and economic activity taking place across European coasts, providing the factsand figures for regional development and innovation policies. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on analyzing the development dynamicsof 172 coastal regions of 29 European countries over a five-year period. The scale of regionsconsidered corresponds to the second level of a common classification of territorial units forstatistics of the European Commission. The indicators considered include data on averageannual population and gross regional product (GRP) in purchasing power parity (PPP), as wellas labor productivity dynamics and regional land use efficiency. Findings: The results confirm an inflow of population to coastal areas, which is slightly abovethe total average. The labor productivity values are also higher than the total average, indicatinga greater share of high value-added activities. However, the identified growth in population isaccompanied by decreasing share and growth rates of GRP (PPP) values. Research/practical implications: The development dynamics identified suggests theresidential and industrial favorability of the coastal zone. Regional development and innovationpolicies should be place-sensitive and adaptive, focusing on retaining leadership in marineexpertise for supporting ocean and maritime economy with high-tech services. Originality/value: Growth of concentration in human activity across coastal areas is consideredin national and pan-European policy papers. Yet, there is little evidence on the deployment ofcoastal sprawl specifically in the context of Europe. Current paper fills this gap by providingdata on urbanization dynamics of European coasts.