The impacts of sea-level rise on the recreational use of Catalan beaches: Application in the Costa Brava Seminar

Event details

The Catalan coast is a traditional tourist destination, where tourism represents 11% of the GDP and beaches are the main resource. Due to this, any significant change in coastal stability, such as shoreline retreat induced by sea-level rise (SLR), will affect not only to the natural system, but also the economic development of the region. Impact assessments of SLR on the recreational use of Catalan beaches under different SLR scenarios would therefore help decision-makers in long-term planning. To do this, a simple regional beach use model has been developed, relating the beach carrying capacity with a set of variables such as beach morphology, beach type (urban, semiurban, rural), density of use (intense, moderate, low) and location (area supplying potential visitors). Moreover, the model is also used to predict future carrying capacities under different SLR scenarios assuming given coastal planning. Obtained results show that climate change will be a serious threat to beach recreation function since the expected enhanced shoreline retreat will severely decrease the recreational carrying capacity in the near future under tested scenarios.