That of Catalonia proposes to protect and order its threatened before the. To this end, the Minister of Territory, , announced this Sunday the publication of the future objectives document Protection and management plan for the Catalan coast (PPOL). A medium-term work, which will have the participation of the agents of the Catalan coast to guarantee the resilience in the 2100 horizon of a strip of 692 kilometers, where more than half are cliffs or low coast, 22% urban beaches, 17% natural beaches and 5%, ports. The starting point is the realization that the coastline is threatened and something must be done to protect it, whether it is beaches, urbanizations, housing, infrastructure or economic activities. The idea is that the Generalitat itself, but also the Ministry of Ecological Transition, City Councils, individuals, businessmen and entities, get involved.
The challenge is complex, because the Catalan coast represents 7% of the territory, concentrates and in summer it increases by seven million people, because . The plan covers the entire length of the coast, the area of influence of the so-called maritime-terrestrial public domain and the beaches and up to 22 kilometers out to sea. The planned calendar includes the participatory process this year, initially approving the plan in 2027 and definitively in 2028.
A priori, there are no generic recipes. Rather there will be local solutions. Tailor-made suits that involve analyzing the competencies in each case and coordinating strategies. They can go through , as has begun to be done in Calafell; to renaturalize, as is being done on other beaches with dune systems; by , as in the Barcelona Forum. Or intervene on the coast and inland, as in Alcanar, where it is also sought after storm episodes. The main mandates of what will be a roadmap are to address formulas for adaptation of the coast to climate risks, deploy green infrastructure and improve coastal governance. The specific objectives are to reduce the risks of liters, recover ecosystems and coastal landscapes, make economic activities compatible with environmental conservation, improve governance and generate knowledge.
Work will be done by dividing the coastline into small units and during the process 12 instruments will be developed that will be made available to all administrations and agents, the counselor explained. These instruments include “adaptation routes” with the solutions that could be applied; a guide for the management of uses and activities; a network to protect and restore the green infrastructure of the coast; a to the coast (round roads or public transport) to gradually reduce access by car, or updating the catalog of beaches.
The starting document proposes five future scenarios to begin debating. One would be “transform to continue”: intervene in natural processes, but with artificial solutions, and if necessary, tear down. The second would be to renaturalize, to return to the “old coastline.” The third, freeing spaces now occupied so that nature can regenerate itself. The fourth suggests “an elastic coastline”, with mixed uses between nature and society. And fifth, that the activity on the coast was “regenerative.”
