Author, as appears in the article.: Serrano Giné D; Jurado Rota J; Pérez Albert M; Bonfill Cerveró C

Department: Geografia

URV's Author/s: Perez Albert, Maria Yolanda / SERRANO GINÉ, DAVID

Keywords: Tourism Spain Scenery Quality Public perceptions Portugal Management Geographic information system Crowdedness Costa Carrying capacity Caribbean coast Beach management Bci

Abstract: © 2018, © 2018 by American Association of Geographers. The aim of this article is to introduce the Beach Crowding Index (BCI), a procedure to assess the social carrying capacity of vulnerable beaches. The study uses the people at one time (PAOT) approach and data gathered weekly throughout the bathing season regarding the number of beachgoers in 100 m2 cells of the beach to assess how many beachgoers it can comfortably hold. The procedure is based on fieldwork, interviews with beachgoers, and geographic information system (GIS) analysis and has been tested on four beaches in protected areas on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. On a scale from 0 to 4, minimum scores throughout the bathing season are 0.7 and maximum 3.7, although results showed wide variation between the beaches, the section of the beach, and the time of day. This study suggests that determining the location of beachgoers and collecting a long-term series of data is fundamental to assessing social carrying capacity and that the BCI procedure can be used for a large number of applications.

Research group: GRATET. Anàlisi Territorial i Estudis Turístics

Thematic Areas: Geography, planning and development Geography Geografia i urbanisme Geografía Earth-surface processes Ciencias sociales Ciências ambientais

licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

ISSN: 14679272

Author's mail: myolanda.perez@urv.cat

Author identifier: 0000-0003-1634-4986

Record's date: 2023-02-19

Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion

Link to the original source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00330124.2017.1416300

Licence document URL: http://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/

Papper original source: Professional Geographer. 70 (3): 412-422

APA: Serrano Giné D; Jurado Rota J; Pérez Albert M; Bonfill Cerveró C (2018). The Beach Crowding Index: A Tool for Assessing Social Carrying Capacity of Vulnerable Beaches. Professional Geographer, 70(3), 412-422. DOI: 10.1080/00330124.2017.1416300

Article's DOI: 10.1080/00330124.2017.1416300

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Journal publication year: 2018

Publication Type: Journal Publications