Inequalities in access to blue coastal space: research report

1. Introduction and methods

This report presents the findings of research carried out by Ipsos and Dr Ben Wheeler on behalf of Marine Scotland and Crown Estate Scotland, exploring inequalities in access to the coast in Scotland.

Background to the research

Accessing blue space is associated with both physical and mental health benefits. For example, research conducted in England found that good health was more prevalent the closer one lives to the coast (Wheeler, White et al. 2012). Living near blue spaces can have significantly stronger beneficial effects on the health and wellbeing of people living in lower income households and in more socio-economically deprived communities (White, Elliott et al. 2020). Ensuring access to these environments may therefore have a role to play in the reduction of health inequalities (Garrett, Clitherow et al., 2019; Allen, Balfour et al., 2014). Research conducted in Scotland specifically has found similarly. For example, a recent paper from the University of Glasgow found that "the availability of both freshwater and coastal blue space was associated with lower antidepressant medication prevalence among older adults in Scotland" (Hanley et al., 2021).

Given the association between access to blue space and reducing health inequalities, Marine Scotland and Crown Estate Scotland wished to undertake new research to provide a greater understanding of the ways in which coastal spaces support mental and physical health and wellbeing, including a better understanding of barriers to visiting the coast and inequalities in access to the coast in Scotland. This was intended to address a current evidence gap on the topic of inequalities of access to coastal blue space.

Research aims and questions

The project's overarching aim was to obtain a better understanding of how and why people use coastal blue space in Scotland, including whether there are particular barriers for specific socio-demographic groups, and to explore potential policy solutions or actions to improve access in future.

This work provides timely and robust evidence to inform policy making, in the context of strategies, frameworks and policies. For Marine Scotland, this includes the Blue Economy Vision and Outcomes and National Marine Plan. The research also supports Crown Estate Scotland to meet objectives in relation to the use of coastal assets for the benefit of Scotland's people. The project provides findings that are relevant to a wide range of policy priorities more broadly across the Scottish Government in relation to health, environment and planning.

The specific research questions were:

1. How is the coast currently perceived and used by different people/groups?

2. What are the key factors that affect use of the coast amongst different people/ groups (especially those people/groups who do not access the coast to the same extent as others)?

3. What policy changes and interventions are needed to facilitate better access to the coast?

4. What data sources could be used as an indicator for "access to blue space" (separately from access to green space)?

Methods

Overview

The research design incorporated both quantitative and qualitative data collection and consisted of three stages:

• A rapid review of international literature – to ensure the research built on what is already known about public access to the coast; to outline examples of relevant policy initiatives in other countries; and to identify data sources which could be used as an indicator for access to blue space.
• A robust quantitative survey of adults in Scotland – to identify which groups are less likely to access the coast; and
• Qualitative research with infrequent and non-users of the coast and stakeholders – to collect rich and detailed data on key barriers to visiting and views on what needs to change to make this easier.

The research took an iterative approach, with each stage informing the focus and design of subsequent phases.

Rapid literature review design

The first stage of the research was a literature review which was completed during November and December 2022. It was led by Dr Ben Wheeler of the University of Exeter, in close collaboration with Ipsos Scotland. The findings from the literature review informed the design of both the short quantitative survey and follow-up qualitative research with infrequent users of the coast and stakeholders.

This was a rapid rather than an exhaustive review of the available evidence. Expert knowledge, existing databases and recent evidence reviews were used to inform the rapid review, as well as using specific search terms in Google Scholar to ensure that significant recent, relevant evidence on coastal blue space was not missed. The search terms used were:

• General: ("blue space" OR bluespace OR coast OR coastal) AND (health OR wellbeing OR well-being OR inequality OR inequalities OR inequity OR inequities OR equality OR equity OR access OR accessibility)
• Specific:
  • Social interaction ("blue space" OR bluespace OR coast OR coastal) AND ("social contact" OR "social interaction" OR "social isolation" OR "loneliness")
  • Perceived access ("blue space" OR bluespace OR coast OR coastal) AND ("perceived access" OR "perceived accessibility" OR "perceived distance" OR "perceived proximity")
  • Disability ("blue space" OR bluespace OR coast OR coastal) AND ("disability" OR "disabilities")
  • Ethnicity ("blue space" OR bluespace OR coast OR coastal) AND ("ethnicity" OR "ethnic group" OR "race" OR "racism").

Specific searches were also undertaken for evidence from comparator countries, which were agreed with Marine Scotland following input from Research Advisory Group members in advance of undertaking the review. These were:

• Other countries in the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Wales)
• Ireland
• Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland)
• Netherlands
• New Zealand.

The literature search focused on findings from the previous five years, i.e. from 2018 to 2022. However, some literature was also included from before this period, where it was particularly relevant, typically around the benefits of accessing coastal blue space and inequalities of access to blue space.

Survey design

The second phase of the research consisted of a short, three-question survey. This aimed to understand whether the general public had recently accessed blue space, including the coast; how often they visit the coast; and their perceived distance from their nearest coastal area. The survey also collected sociodemographic information to enable subgroup analysis across these measures.

The full survey questionnaire is included in Appendix A at the end of this report.

The survey was completed by 2,355 adults living Scotland aged 16 and over between 8 – 14 December 2022. Interviews were conducted via Ipsos' KnowledgePanel, a high-quality random probability online panel which is nationally representative (including digitally excluded participants who are provided with a device and internet access to take part).

Qualitative research design

Follow-up qualitative research was conducted with survey participants who visited the coast no more often than once every two to three months, as well as relevant stakeholder organisations. The aim was to achieve an in-depth understanding of attitudes towards visiting the coast and key barriers to access, as well as what could encourage these infrequent and non-users to visit the coast in future.

Fieldwork consisted of focus group discussions and one-to-one depth interviews. Both focus groups and interviews were semi-structured and were based on a discussion guide which allowed for open discussion while ensuring all key points were covered. The guides covered questions about attitudes towards the coast, previous experiences, ease of access and any changes that would make participants more likely to visit in the future. While all discussion guides covered broadly the same content, they were adapted for use in focus groups, interviews and discussions with stakeholders. Copies of the discussion guides are included in Appendix B.

Fieldwork was conducted between 27^th January and 9^th March 2023.

Sampling

Overall, 39 participants from the general public in Scotland took part in the qualitative element of the research. This included 24 participants across four focus groups and 15 participants who took part in depth interviews. Four interviews were conducted with relevant stakeholder organisations.

A sampling framework was designed based on the results of the survey, in order to include groups that were less likely to visit the coast in this research. The sample consisted of a mix of 'occasional users' (those who have accessed the coast at least once in the past 12 months, but have done so no more than every two to three months) and 'non-users' who live within a 5 km distance of the coast.

Within this, the following sociodemographic groups were targeted for inclusion:

• Those with a disability or health condition;
• Those with an Asian or Black African background;
• Those living in deprived (SIMD 1/2) urban areas; and
• Young people aged 16-34.

While those living in urban areas as a whole were less likely to visit the coast, the qualitative research focused on participants from Glasgow and Edinburgh/Lothians specifically. This was both to enable discussion groups to be segmented by location, so that participants could discuss similar stretches of local coastline, and to ensure sufficient numbers of participants could be recruited from the available survey sample.

While ethnic minority communities as a whole were less likely to visit the coast, this research focused on Asian and Black African participants to ensure there were a number of participants from relatively similar backgrounds in order to be better able to draw meaningful conclusions about any differences in experience (however, as noted in the limitations section of this chapter, the sample sizes for these groups remain small). These specific groups were selected on the basis of being the largest ethnic minority groups within Scotland's population.

The majority of participants were invited to take part in a group discussion. To enable a fuller understanding of specific barriers for disabled or ethnic minority participants, and to ensure any barriers that might be sensitive for the individual could be discussed in an appropriate way, these participants were invited to take part in one-to-one depth interviews.

Table 1 provides an overview of the sample across the focus groups and interviews. An overall sample breakdown is provided in Appendix C.

Table 1

Method of engagement	Sample characteristics	Number of participants
Group 1	Those living in deprived (SIMD 1/2) urban areas in Glasgow	7
Group 2	Those living in deprived (SIMD 1/2) urban areas in Edinburgh/Lothians	5
Group 3	Young people aged 16-34, urban areas	5
Group 4	Young people aged 16-34, urban areas (mainly Lothian)	7
Depth interviews	Disabled participants living within 5k of the coast	8
	Asian participants	3
	Black African participants	3
	Mixed/Multiple ethnic backgrounds	1

There were a further four interviews conducted with stakeholder organisations. Two of these supported disabled people living in Scotland to access the coast and other outdoor areas, while two supported ethnic minority communities in Scotland (including one which specifically supported ethnic minority communities to access nature in Scotland).

Recruitment

Participants who took part in the qualitative element of this study were primarily identified using a database of respondents who had taken part in the survey conducted as part of this project, and who had agreed to be recontacted by Ipsos about further research. Eligible participants were sent an invitation to either a discussion group or an interview with key information about the research. This included contact details for the research team and participants were asked to get in touch and opt in if they were willing to take part. Participants were then contacted by telephone to confirm details of their participation.

For ethnic minority participants, recruitment was supplemented with the support of a relevant stakeholder organisation. This organisation acted as a gatekeeper and passed on the invitation to the research to people they worked with who would be eligible to take part, in order to give them the opportunity to opt into the research as well.

Stakeholder contact details were free-found by the research team, who invited relevant organisations directly to take part in an interview.

Qualitative analysis

A systematic thematic approach was taken when analysing the qualitative data in order to produce findings that are both clearly grounded in participants' accounts, and transparent and methodologically robust.

Interviews were audio recorded with participants' consent, and detailed notes were made by the researchers following each group discussion or interview. All four group discussions were transcribed. Researchers then inputted the data into a thematic matrix in Excel, summarising and organising the data so that it could be interrogated systematically later on in the analysis process.

The research team met both during the fieldwork phase and after fieldwork completion to discuss emerging themes and then interrogate these in more detail.

The final stage of analysis consisted of an in-depth review of the data where researchers used the thematic matrix to ensure the full range of views and experiences were captured, as well as any differences between groups.

As this research is focused on behaviour change, analysis was structured according to the MAPPS behaviour change framework, developed by the Ipsos Behavioural Science team. This ensured a systematic exploration of the specific behaviours of interest. MAPPS is based on the COM-B system and Behaviour Change Wheel process and categorises, or 'diagnoses', behaviours, based on the series of factors shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Ipsos MAPPS behaviour change framework

MAPPS DIMENSION	MAPPS CATEGORY	CONTENTS	WHAT IT MEANS
Motivation	Outcome expectations	How estimation/predictions about outcomes affect motivations	I don't think it will work
	Emotion	How feelings/emotions and emotion regulation can support behaviours	I'm not feeling like doing it
	Internalisation	How behavioural motivation evolves from extrinsic to intrinsic	I don't want to do it
	Identity	How personal and social identities support behaviours	I'm not that kind of person
	Self-efficacy	How feelings of self-efficacy and mastery support change and persistence	I don't feel able to do it
Ability	Capability	How we learn new behaviours	I don't have the skills to do it
	Routines	How behaviours become habits, embedded in routines	It's not part of what I usually do
Processing	Decision forces	How heuristics, biases and behavioural regulation guide decisions and behaviour	How things are processed
Physical	Environmental factors	How the physical environment, context and resources supports or impairs behaviour change	How things are set up
Social	Social Norms	How group, transient or situational norms guide behaviour	What's expected of us
	Cultural Values	How broad cultural values affect behaviour	The way we live

Scope and limitations

The survey data from Ipsos' KnowledgePanel is based on a robust and representative sample of Scotland's population. However, the majority of primary data collected as part of this research is qualitative in nature. Therefore the extent to which qualitative findings presented in this report apply to the wider population, or specific sub-groups, cannot be quantified. Rather, the value of qualitative research lies in capturing rich and nuanced data, and identifying the range of different issues involved and the way in which these impact on people.

Related to this, participant numbers for particular subgroups within the qualitative sample, particularly for ethnic minorities, are very small. Where differences between groups emerged or when participants discussed issues that they felt were particularly relevant to their own demographic or community, this is noted in the text. However, it is important to bear in mind that these views and experiences do not represent the wider views and experiences of these communities as a whole.

Finally, the sample of participants in the qualitative phase of this research was intentionally skewed towards participants that were infrequent or non-users of the coast in Scotland. Since these groups are concentrated in urban areas, and for other methodological reasons explained in the qualitative sampling section of this chapter, the sample is purposefully skewed towards those living in Glasgow and Lothian. However, views of participants living in other areas of Scotland were also collected as part of the interviews.

Report structure and conventions

The remainder of this report is structured as follows:

Chapter 2: Review of previous research. This chapter summarises the key findings of a rapid review of the literature around coastal access in Scotland. It also identifies examples of policies aimed at increasing equality of access in other countries.

Chapter 3: Overview of current use of the coast outlines general attitudes towards Scotland's coast, including when and how often people visit.

Chapter 4: Perceived benefits of visiting the coast. This chapter considers what participants felt were the key benefits of spending time at the coast.

Chapter 5: Barriers to accessing the coast explores the challenges experienced by participants when they wanted to visit the coast, as well as what could deter participants from visiting.

Chapter 6: Policy solutions. This chapter presents participants' views on what would need to change to encourage or enable them to visit the coast more often.

Chapter 7: Conclusions. This chapter synthesises key learnings about the barriers to coastal access and policy solutions that could address them, as well as outlining how the findings could be built on in future.

Case studies are included throughout the report to illustrate important points and diverse experiences. These are based on real experiences, but pseudonyms have been used and some details have been changed in order to protect anonymity.

This research was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research, ISO 20252.