Planning a coastline

Journal: Landscape. The Journal of the Landscape Institute. Winter 2014
Chapter: Planning a coastline
Date: 2014
Author: Miriam García García
Publisher: Landscape Institute. Darkhorse Design Ltd
Pages: 16-21

Galicia in northwest Spain now has a detailed coastal management which consolidates information and enables sustainable decision-making about development. It is an approach that could be applied profitably elsewhere.

Over the last decade, there has been a growing awareness in the province of Galicia in northern Spain, awareness of the shortcomings of the urban growth model that we could describe as ‘without criterion’. This model underlies the area’s intense urbanisation which is producing inefficient urban systems and a series of impacts and disturbances that are not only affecting the perception we have of the coastal littoral landscape, but also the littoral system as a whole (hydrology, habitats and biodiversity, land waste and contamination etc.), endangering its functioning. The consequences include production of impervious soil, fragmentation of the habitat, loss of biodiversity, pressure on the quality of water resources, contamination and waste production and urban dispersal.

The Plan pretends to constitute the critical reflection framework for the different public policies affecting the territory, by facilitating a profound knowledge of the littoral system, its dynamics and landscapes. The final aim is the realization of a more coherent and sustainable use of the littoral space and the improvement of the quality of life of its local inhabitants as well as visitors.