The Mediterranean region is highly vulnerable to climate change, soil and water resource degradation, and biodiversity loss. These challenges disproportionately affect disadvantaged rural areas, impacting both natural resources and the livelihoods of local agricultural societies. Urgent transformative measures are essential to address land and water management as well as food security challenges in these disadvantaged areas. Living labs are being called upon to play a key role in addressing these challenges through the development of Nature-based Solutions (NbSs) that are able to provide environmental and socioeconomic benefits towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. The aim of this work is to provide insights on an open innovation ecosystem of Mediterranean Living Labs for the synergetic development and participatory assessment of decentralized wetland-aquaponics, as NbSs are able to address environmental and food security challenges in disadvantaged rural areas. The study addresses the knowledge gap of Living Labs contribution to the development of decentralized wetland-aquaponics and the limited research on small-scale aquaponics systems in rural Mediterranean settings, while revealing the role of public participation in ascertaining the solution and evaluating its feasibility and impacts in light of the local social values and interests in the mountainous area of Akkar al-Atika in Lebanon.

Egypt’s agricultural sector confronts compounding pressures from water scarcity, soil salinisation, and rapid urbanisation. Decoupled recirculating aquaponic systems (DRAPS) represent a promising response, integrating independent fish and plant production loops with IoT-enabled monitoring to achieve substantial reductions in water and land demand. This study presents a 24-month performance and economic assessment of a 400 m² DRAPS pilot greenhouse at the Egyptian Chinese University (ECU), Cairo, operating under real arid-climate conditions as part of the EU PRIMA Mara–Mediterra project. Water quality parameters, including pH in both the aquaculture and hydroponic loops, total dissolved solids (TDS) and greenhouse temperature were logged continuously. A crop-by-crop techno-economic analysis covering seven vegetable crops and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) was conducted using net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period across a 5-year horizon. The results show that five of seven crops are economically viable at a 20% discount rate, with Red Batavia achieving the highest net present value (NPV) (323,863 EGP) and IRR (59.55%) and a payback period of 1.5 years. A scenario analysis projects that scaling to a four-unit, 1600 m² cluster could raise IRR to approximately 62% through a reduction in capital expenditure from economies of scale, while delivering annual water savings of 1.9 million litres relative to conventional soil-based agriculture. These findings demonstrate that IoT-integrated DRAPS is both technically viable and financially attractive for commercial-scale deployment in water-scarce arid regions.