Participatory modelling for sustainable development: Connecting coastal and rural social-ecological systems Martínez-López, Javier Albaladejo, Juan de Vente, Joris System dynamics Coastal-rural areas Land-sea interactions Multiple-criteria decision analysis Social-ecological systems Mar Menor Integrated planning and informed decision-making require an understanding of the interactions between coastal and rural social-ecological systems and quantification of the impacts of adaptive management across sectors. The Mar Menor lagoon (SE-Spain) provides an example of how a lack of integrated planning can lead to environmental and socio-economic crises. Here we present a systems approach using participatory modelling to identify optimal solutions for the sustainable development of this social-ecological system. Through a participatory process, we co-developed causal loop diagrams that formed the starting point of a System Dynamics model. Model development and its application helped facilitating knowledge exchange between stakeholders, identify challenges and opportunities for sustainable development, and evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impacts of different management and policy solutions. Model results were evaluated using multi-criteria analysis demonstrating its potential application as a decision support system to identify an optimal set of solutions. 2025-07-10T11:49:47Z 2025-07-10T11:49:47Z 2024-04-27 journal article Martínez-López, J., Albaladejo, J., & de Vente, J. (2024). Participatory modelling for sustainable development: Connecting coastal and rural social-ecological systems. Environmental Modelling & Software: With Environment Data News, 177(106061), 106061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106061 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/105189 10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106061 eng info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/H2020/773782 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier