How to keep a liveable and vital future for Polder Giethoorn

For my scholarship I researched the question: how do we keep a livable and vital countryside when there are so many challenges for the future? An answer to this question cannot be provided by the government, it should start with asking the inhabitants how they see the future for their surroundings. That is what I set out to do in my research project.
I defined the Polder Giethoorn as a specific research subject, with natural boundaries and specific challenges with regard to agriculture.This also is my birthplace and I am the third generation to farm these lands. The Polder is located between a touristic hotspot and two Natura 2000 areas. With all the challenges with regard to climate change, pollution from nitrogen and carbon dioxide, renewable energy and the demand for housing, the future of the Polder as an agricultural area is at stake.
My purpose for my scholarship is to learn about innovations and perspectives for agriculture in other countries and to apply these insights to the Polder Giethoorn. My purpose for the research assignment is to explore how inhabitants see the future for the Polder, how they value the innovations and find an answer to the question: how can it remain a liveable and vital area in the future? 

The central question for my research project is: Which solutions that might solve the challenges for the Polder Giethoorn are supported by the inhabitants and stakeholders surrounding the Polder Giethoorn? In my research I identified the most important stakeholders, the future challenges, the opinion of inhabitants on the challenges and core values for the future, the innovations from other countries, the opinions of inhabitants on risk and opportunities with regard to the solutions for challenges and the support for solutions for the future of the Polder Giethoorn.

I conducted my research in cooperation with the local and regional government. The challenges for the Polder were chosen based on policy documents and after consultation with public administrators. And my selection of possible values for the area were also derived from vision documents of local and regional governments. They also supported my by providing me with a researcher to help with the survey and the analysis of the outcomes.