Whose blue healthy spaces?: A scoping study on blue health promotion and recreation, planning and management

Abstract

This study reviews the research literature on blue health promotion and the value of multiple forms of coastal and marine recreation and activities across societal contexts, with contributions from the Nordic region. It re-emphasizes the need for interrogating whose benefits and interests are promoted and the diversity of physical cultures and activities. The conceptualisation of salutogenetic health interventions contextualises the review beyond individualised and medicalised scopes through the research question: Whether and how does integrated coastal and marine planning and management seek to facilitate and enhance physically active blue health promotion that is also socio-ecologically inclusive? Following the scoping review framework by Arksey and O’Malley (Citation2005), the study identifies recent research and gaps through an iterative process. It employs transparency on inclusion/exclusion criteria, and in the comparison and discussion concerning methodology and findings. The research techniques included searches across online databases, journals, library resources, and manually scanning reference lists and abstracts. The peer-reviewed works included are n = 58 published between 1996 and 2022, with most published between 2015 and 2022. The reviewed literature is grouped analytically into two themes: (1) Blue health promotion, interventions and activities and (2) integrated marine planning, management and policy. Against this background, the article discusses the potential of a complementary research approach combining: (a) the salutogenetic orientation, (b) formative interventions and (c) co-creation in blue health promotion practices. Findings suggest a need for greater differentiation concerning a socio-ecological approach to recreational blue health promotion, prioritizing locally tailored and seasonally adapted interventions.