Sustainable Development of the Spanish Atlantic Coast

Journal: Topos 87. Coastal strategies
Chapter: Sustainable Development of the Spanish Atlantic Coast. The Galician Coastal Management Plan
Date: 2014
Author: Miriam García García,  Manuel Borobio Sanchiz
Pages: 104-108

The last two decades have brought an international awareness of coastal issues and highlighted the need to change our growth model in order to design more resilient environments. In this context, not only the Mediterranean Spanish coast but also the Atlantic one had experienced an intense urbanization producing inefficient urban systems, in addition to a series of impacts and disturbances affecting not only our perception of the coastal landscape, but also the eco-anthropic system on its whole, putting at risk its functioning.

To change this model into a sustainable one, the Government of Galicia promoted the Galician Coastal Management Plan (POL).

The plan enables the definition of the criteria, principle and general parameters for the planning of coastal areas as well as the necessary norms that ensure the conservation, protection and the highlighting of the values of these areas. It is a key instrument for the establishment of a reliable normative framework for the protection of the Galician coast. The plan arises from the conviction that protecting means managing a territory, organizing its uses according to the natural and anthropic configuration as well as its processes and dynamics.
This article provides a summary of some of the main aspects of the Plan.